Adventures of a Duone
by Skypeoplephoenix732
Summary: This fanfiction will be a crossover between HTTYD 2, Marvel, and DC comics. A half-human, half-bewilderbeast is trying to find her way in the worlds among humans and dragons. Please review when you get the chance :) Sorry for the delay; serious writer's block, and this was a hard chapter to write. Chapter 25 is now up!
1. Prologue

"It's coming. It's coming!" the mother screamed as a black lump of flesh was born. What... What is that!" the father cried out, horrified to see the creature beginning to move, exposing... wings! Its black body was covered in what looked like starlight. Suddenly, it started growing, and kept growing! Gasping, the father realized, "It's a duone! How could you mate with a dragon!" He cried out in disgust.

Terrified, baby Kylrm felt herself grow uncontrollably. She saw tiny fleshy things just before she crushed them! She didn't mean to, but she just kept on getting bigger and bigger! Finally, she stopped growing, but not before crushing dozens more squishes and brown snapping things. Fear growing, she unsteadily began to race toward a wide blue expanse beyond the strange creatures now far below her. Catapulting herself into the expanse, she finally felt at home. She was able to go much faster now, and the dark blue deep cleansed relatively small pools of red sticky liquid off her white foot scales. After a few days of gliding through the gradually colder water passed, an exhausted Kylrm reached a small island that she sensed was full of dragon-humans like her. They welcomed her into their midst and sheltered her there for 1 month, teaching her and showing her how to be the better woman/dragon. Then, everything changed when Drago's bewilderbeast attacked. He slaughtered the other duones and kidnapped Kylrm. He brought her to Drago's torture camp where she was held captive for 15 years.


	2. Chapter 1: The Newcomer

_20 years later..._

The chatter of scutteclaws outside my inlet startled me from my beauty sleep. Groaning, I changed my tail into an elongated deadly nadder's and swatted at them, spikes extended. They screeched, dodging out of the way, only to return. Hmph, must I ALWAYS get up before dawn! I thought, growling at the scuttleclaws my half-brother sent each morning. They seemed particularly insistent this morning, so something special must have happened to get them riled up. _Kylrm! Kylrm!_ Kylrm! they kept shouting until I shook my wings and tail into stormcutter form and body into night fury form. That was my favorite combination, combining speed and beauty with grace and agility. I still am not sure which pair belongs to which form, annoying Vaka and Cloud Jumper to no end, but now that I was awake, I went through my daily exercise of running through my different fire types and special abilities. I even tried an alpha stab at the scuttleclaws. I almost nabbed one of them, but he slipped away like an eel. Shivering at the thought of the slimy creatures, I nearly hit my prized mirror, a thin sheet of metal scavenged from smoldering smokebreaths. Seeing my reflection reminded me of the last thing I had to do before venturing outside of my inlet. Concentrating on my desired image, I expertly crafted a light mirage that would settle on my scales and wings to hide the scars and mauling from my nightmare at Drago's... never mind that. Thinking on that too long _always_ brought back painful memories.

Once I finished the illusion, I looked over myself in the mirror, tilting it this way and that so the ice on the walls of the cave would catch my reflection from different angles. To keep the other dragons of the "Great Bewilderbeast's" nest - ironically, he was only a couple decades older than me - from suspecting I was not weak like most duones, I had to keep the illusions flawless. Emerging from my inlet into the main cavern, I marveled at the skill with which my half-brother maintained the magnificent ice sculptures and temperatures of the cavern. Dragons from all types of habitats could coexist here because of his abilities, and he was hopefully going to begin teaching me how to form structural masterpieces instead of just minor sculptures that fell apart when even dragons as small as terrible terrors perched. A few of the scuttleclaws flew back at me, gently nipping at my tail and head frills and immediately darting away. They knew I could easily swat them into a wall now that I was a broadwing.

Snapping out my vertical, third tail fin, I separated my wings into x-formation and tried a vertical take-off again. For a moment, it seemed like I was about to fall back to the ground. Then, I found a rhythm to my flight and was able to hold altitude for a few seconds before making a 90-degree turn up to my way out of the cavern. Any new broadwing would have rammed into and likely been impaled by the millions of broken sharp pieces of ice jutting from a "smoke hole" as Valka, our resident human expert, called it. However, I had spent weeks flying at night to learn the ins and outs of this mini tunnel. I was just the right size - who am I kidding; I made myself just the right size - to weave in between the shards and rough edges. The twists and turns would have befuddled even the most experienced night fury and out-sized the most skilled stormcutter, but by combining the two forms with my smarts, I was reached the hardest point of all; the sharp turn at the top. Just before it opened out, there was a giant stalactite of ice. If I turned to early to my right, I would ram into a sharp wall of rough, spiky ice; on the other hand, if I turned too late, I could get any part of my body or wings impaled by the giant cone. I expertly waited until the last second and... zipped away from the cone just in time, angling myself slightly more upward to account for a slight, unexpected downdraft this early in the morning.

Soaring above the ice castle, I dipped up before plummeting down and towards the east, where the sun was just starting to peak above the horizon. _Thank Thor! Or Odin, I can never remember which. _I chuckled at my instincts, yet lack of understanding of human customs. Valka had taught me a few things about my mother's heritage, but I was always more intrigued by the stories of my real people, the dragons, in which the great Creator gave a piece of the true story to each dragon, and one day, when we are all united, we will rediscover the entire story of our fore-sires and return to the place from which we came. No matter, today's lesson was to be on building endurance and firepower to face the challenger my brother could sense coming.

As supreme Alpha, my brother had a duty to protect our people from those who would seek to destroy us. Somehow, "our people" included humans, even though Valka was the only one who seemed to truly care about dragons. Sure, there were rumors about Berk... Wait, was that a night fury? Startled, I pulled up from my dive and let the wind whip me behind the cover of a few rocks. Letting my skin adopt the camouflage of a changewing, I watched a group of tidal dragons bring the black, catlike figure into the holding cave where we typically judge dragons who are deemed dangerous or whose loyalties are unclear. Curious, I was about to follow them into the place when I my brother called me to his side back in the main cavern. Oh well, I guess that means we'll have to entertain a guest. Although, I could have sworn I saw a saddle on the poor soul. I switched back to standard form, a full-out stormcutter with similar markings to Cloud Jumper. Any new dragons just assumed I was his daughter. Taking a shortcut through one of the many whispering death tunnels, I weaved through the surprisingly unfamiliar passageway until I came out to a small ledge right behind my brother. A majestic, glistening white with brown lobe tips and slightly bluish leg and body fins, he reclined beneath the waterfall, letting his body heat warm the water for the other dragons to drink if they wished.

Flying up to my typical resting place near Cloud Jumper's den, I settled down to wait for the night fury to emerge. My brother was about to warn me that this one was different, when suddenly I felt the atmosphere in the thunder change. The first to emerge after Valka was not a night fury, but a human! The entire thunder stood up in shock. Why would the Alpha allow a _human _to come here of its own bidding? and right behind it was... _Emerald?_ Everyone exclaimed, shocked. Sure enough, he rumbled an affirmative.


	3. Chapter 2: Succession

Curious, I sneaked closer to the edge of the ledge to get a better look. Valka and Emerald's human seemed to get along well, almost too well; then it hit me: he must be Valka's son! Reigning in my curiosity and making sure I maintained my coloring and shape, I glided down to Cloud Jumper's side. The boy seemed surprised as he saw me land just before Cloud Jumper took off to join the rest of the thunder in an aerial welcome. Any other day I would have joined him; however, the squishy intrigued me. I could sense he knew a great deal about dragons, although not half as much as Valka. I heard her mention what I could only assume was his name, "Hiccup." He smelled like a multitude of humans, Valka, dragons, and something else... walking closer, I continued to sniff the air, trying to determine what the last smell was. Before I knew it, I was right in front of Hiccup, nose to nose. That's when I understood what that last smell was, a scent I had not known in a long, long time... Horrified, I backed away as fast as I could, realizing that he had at some point been in contact with Eret son of Eret and, in some way, with Drago. Growling softly, I took off to halfheartedly join the aerial welcome, alerting Cloud Jumper to what I had learned.

"I'm sure it was just a passing or chance meeting with Drago. He is Valka's son; he would not ally himself with either traitor," Cloud Jumper reassured me. Valstram, my brother, reinforced that sentiment, and I ultimately decided to explore the new whispering death tunnels while they went out to eat. The scent of Drago still lingered in my senses, warning me that the time of war and chaos that Valstram had predicted would soon be upon us. The challenger I had spent most of my life with would come for us and would... would replace Valstram. If this challenger was not overthrown by savage winter's end, the ocean and lands would turn red, overflowing with the blood of dragons and humans alike.

"The Alpha protects them all," the first part of the Supreme Alpha oath echoed through my mind as I glided through the tunnels. The few hatchlings who coexisted in these tunnels knew to avoid me when I was like this and quickly darted out of my way when I came down their tunnel. My brother wanted me to sucede him as supreme alpha, but I knew the pureblood dragons would never stand for that. He claimed to see me play a primary role in the vie for leadership in the coming wars, but I never could see that part of my destiny. I had no doubt that I could defeat the challenger in battle. The problem was the aftermath. The purebloods would attack me, likely driving bewilderbeasts into extinction, as I was rumored to be the last female. Ironically, I could easily stand up to a bewilderbeast, but would be overrun and most likely killed by a thunder the size of legends if they turned on me. No, if I played a role, it would be more as an advisory position. I laughed; who ever heard of a half-blood avising the supreme alpha? It simply was not done. Then again, Emerald's return seemed promising. He was the same age as me, but far more eligible in terms of social order. Most night furies could not become alphas of a thunder, much less their entire race, until they were at least in their mid-forties. However, as Emerald was an heir to a prominent thunder of night furies, the pure bloods might accept him as their leader. I shook my head, berating myself for such wistful fantasies; Emerald would have to become a titan at least once in order to defeat the challenger. No night fury has ever transformed like that before they were 60 years old.

I sensed the thunder and Valstram coming back, making me realize that I had been exploring the tunnels for hours. Using a shortcut I recalled from an old map Valka made a few months ago, I darted back into the main cavern just as I sensed Gruff and a few other Hobblegrunts alerting us to intruders. Two humans and dragons with intricate saddles were approaching from the southeastern corridor. Sensing a strong connection to Hiccup and Emerald, I decided to approach the intruding dragons to incquire why they were here. I could sense Cloud Jumper, Valka, and a few rescued dragons moving to intercept the humans as they tried to leave with Hiccup and Emerald. The lazy hotburple was already asleep, so I turned to the rumblehorn, Skullcrusher.

"We are here to rescue my rider's son and his dragon. Get in our way, and you will perish." I never did like Rumblehorns very much. They were typically abrupt and extremely rude when you first met them. I could sense this one had a soft side for his rider, though, so I let his insult pass.

"As I am sure you are aware, this is the sanctuary of the Great Bewilderbeast. We only wish to make sure you are not a threat and bid you a good day." He seemed to relax a bit at this, which immediately told me that he had never encountered a bewilderbeast before. Most dragons never had the good (or mis-) fortune of meeting one, so I casually asked Skullcrusher if he would care to join me in the main hall. Wapping the Hotburple, Grump, with his tail, Skulcrusher followed me to the main cavern. Dragons and humas are alike in that they tend to be impressed by grandiose words and excessive use of polite language. In reality, no one talks like that, but it was a nice facade to put on for guests. After catching a glimpse of Valstram, we sensed our respective humans in emotional turmoil and rushed to the tristing fountain to help. We arrived just in time to watch them come together in a beautiful harmony. Their inner songs intertwined, and I could sense broken hearts beginning to heal. "They're mated," I quietly exclaimed in awe. I had never seen a human couple have such a sacred bond to call them a mated couple. To humans, this would merely indicate having a child together. But to dragons... to dragons, this was the most sacred of bonds, one that was not even broken in death. We mated for life with the one we would spend the rest of our lives with. This was the bond Valka and... Stoick shared, and it was a beautiful reunion to behold.

Silently, I slipped out of the hall to give them privacy and turn my mind towards preparing for the battles to come. I sent out scouts - smokebreaths, terrors, and a few specialist changewings who could blend in with the sky to determine how far away Drago and his dragon army were from our home. I put the dragons on high alert and strengthened our defenses along the shores. Drago's challenger had no free will, so we could not arrange the rules of combat and other technicalities beforehand. This left us scurrying to prepare on every front for how much and when interferance could be taken into account. The weakest point in the sanctuary was where Valstram would have to emerge, so I placed a few hundred sentries around that point to find pressure points and places Drago might try to hit to force Valstram to destroy part of the sanctuary to get out. In this event, I enlisted several titan class whispering deaths to combine many of their tunnels and enlarge their entrances on both sides. I also enlarged the underwater entrance on the main cavern's side, but kept the outside entrance small enough that only Valstram could get through. The challenger was about 15 years older and so was much larger than my brother.

For a moment, I was distracted by a beautiful melody coming from Valka and Stoick, but then the scouts came back. Drago and his dragons were only a few minutes away. I called all the dragons who had not eaten to grab some fish or grubs from the reserves and prepare for battle. Weaving my way back to my personal cave, I prepped war paint and put on my human and dragon armor. This time, I adapted my war form. I was the size of a hatchling bewilderbeast; about 100 ft tall (twice the size of Cloud Jumper) with stormcutter wings, sea dragonus maximus (red death) tail with nadder spines, gronckle-tough hide and legs, night fury body, and my natural head. My head was as deadly an instrument as a Scauldron's venom, with wicked spikes that could just out and kill in an instant. At the same time, I could instantly streamline my head so it was nearly flat with a top speed of 400 miles per hour, beyond the sound barrior. My human armor consisted of thin, but gronckle-tough metal that could easily bend, but had not so much as cracked in the two years and countless battles in which I had used it. In dragon form, the plates transformed into underbelly and armpit armor to protect the softest parts of my body. Hearing the calls of Gruff and the other hobblegrunt sentries, I calmed myself and sped out into the open, whipping my wings back to catch the familiar updraft that took me high above the clouds. This vantage point made my heart flutter as I now began to understand just how high the stakes were. As far as I could see, about 1000 miles, ships the size of broadwing scauldrons made the ocean look brown with dots of blue. Sensing the challenger at the front of the armadas, I sent the majority of our tidal class dragons to go around the back of the armadas and try to mitigate the number of dragons and humans attacking while maintaining a relatively safe distance from the challenger.

_It has begun._


	4. Chapter 3: Born Supremacy

My brother's declaration echoed through my mind. _I am sorry. I had hoped to train you more before this day... I will fight for your sake, but if I die as predicted, I will give you all that you need to know in the days to come. All the abilities you can unlock and what you need to do to unlock them... even the alpha state_. Worried, I sent him a message of security, focusing on an image of me nuzzling him gently, then of me in my current state. _I am ready_. I said simply, knowing it was not enough; no words could some up our bond, farewell, and battle fury. Roaring a challenge to Drago's dragons behind the front lines, I taunted them, forcing them to come up to me instead of towards where the main battle was to occur. Evaluating each dragon's level of skill, armor, and loyalty to the challenger, I constantly sent Valstram information about the enemy. It seemed that most of the dragons had been conscripted and would therefore be easily swayed once he gave the command. The ones on the front lines, however, were extremely loyal and would be far easier to fight than to turn. Valstram agreed and gave the command through me, turning all but a few dozen against Drago's army. I gave them their orders, and they swiftly turned to attack Drago's human army on ships. The remaining dragons attacked me with all the force of a great typhoon, inadvertently driving me higher and higher into the clouds. This was a benefit to me, as I could easily expand my lungs to accomadate the thin air. As they flew higher, on the other hand, they found it hard to breathe, forcing the challenger to loosen and then completely abandon his hold on them. Giving them orders to attack the dragons at the front line from behind, I could sense the challenger was beginning to see me as more of a threat than I anticipated he would at this stage.

Knowing I had a connection to Valstram, he bellowed, _I will approach him at the Valley Gorge to the East of Ferrinsgoph. Any interference will be terminated after one warning_. Translating the message quickly from Duel to ordinary Dragontongue, I told my brother that the challenger would meet him at the easiest emergence point and any interference would not be tolerated. We suspected those would be the terms, as they were the most basic form of a challenge that could be taken. This was the limit of humans' understanding of our ways, so a dragon with no free will could not possibly arrange a more elegant challenge. I continued to watch the battle from above, only engaging when I was needed.

When Valstram finally emerged with the rest of our thunder, including Valka and Cloud Jumper, I swiftly dove to the front line, laying waste to the ships before they could interfere with the battle. I saw Drago look up in confusion as I could sense he recognized my fighting style and varying types of fires. He was shocked, still believing me to be rotting in one of his cells or dead. I was able ignore him, instead focusing on destroying his armadas to make sure he could not escape. Without the chains restraining him, his master called, and the challenger emerged from the abnormally deep water just beyond the shoreline. _I am fire and ice... I am beauty and devastation... I am death... I... AM... HASHIM!_

Shocked, I paused my destructive path. Hashim was the name of the Great Destroyer, the one who killed all but a couple dozen night furies. Narrowly avoiding a net, I jerked back into battle mode, destroying the remainder of front line war ships. Emerald and his partner seemed to be surprised that there was another bewilderbeast, yet that was the entire point of this battle. Without a challenger, Drago and his men would never have stood a chance against our dragon army. As it was, reports streamed in from the back as wave after wave of ships was decimated. Ordering all dragons away from the duel, I flew in between them to reestablish the rules and nature of the challenge: to the death, no interference, final decision. Banking away, I watched them from a distance, still concerned that the dark prophecy would come to pass.

I think you all know the tale of the ensuing duel. At first Valstram seemed to get the upper hand, clipping Hashim on his lower jaw and pierced several plates of his scale armor - Bewilderbeasts have layers upon layers of scales. I was busy fighting at the back of Drago's armada with the rest of our thunder when, horrified, I watched as Valka made Cloudjumper try to interfere. This broke the rhythm of the battle and violated the terms of agreement. Fortunately, Hashim just let him off with a warning, tagging Cloudjumper's tail with an icy blast. It all went downhill from there. Caught off guard by the interference, Valstram could not seem to find his rhythm again, and Hashim knocked him over and skewered both hearts with his tusks. Right before he died, just as promised, my sweet brother transferred everything that I would ever need to know about my bewilderbeast side into a file in my mind where I could only access parts of the information when I was ready.

Devastated, I allowed myself a few seconds to mourn before I had to change into a half-form, human battle form with stormcutter wings in this case. Otherwise, I risked coming under the control of Hashim. All I wanted to do in that moment was to fly as high as I could and dive-bomb Hashim until he shattered into millions, no billions, of pieces on the ground. Then, I would incinerate his remains, preventing a proper burial. I knew that could never happen, though. If I did that, I would become supreme alpha, which would lead to all-out war between various factions. Snapped out of my thoughts, I felt Hashim's massive alpha presence catapulting toward my mind. Bracing myself, my entire mind city shook from the citadel at the center to the mazes in the outer corridors to the outer spherical structure protecting my mind. Hashim hit my mind with all the force he could muster, driving past my outer sphere and into the booby-trapped corridors. Taking a deep breath, I set up even more booby traps, took down a few, and allowed the walls to start shifting to make it harder for Hashim to get into the next level of security: the maze. Very few who attacked my mind emerged again, much less with their sanity. Most were trapped in my maze or corridors and had been incinerated by now. There were a few minds still lingering though, especially in the maze. Even I had difficulty finding my way through sometimes. After what seemed like days, Hashim finally gave up. Before he exited, though, he shot a devastating blow up and over all of my protections. I rushed back to the shores, slowing down the attack so I could be over land when it hit the main part of my mind.

I barely made it to land before the attack hit, causing me to stumble and fall on my face, not the best thing when the ground is covered in sharp rocks. Shaking the bits off my face, I collected myself and got up, realizing that I must have blacked out. Emerald was no longer here, and there was an air of great loss among the humans. They were coming up with a plan - albeit poorly conceived - to strike back at Drago and get "their" dragons back. Curious, I transformed into a more graceful form: human body with stormcutter wings.

"Valka, other humans. What is the plan you seek?"


	5. Chapter 4: The Aftermath

The newcomers seemed shocked at my form, but Valka reassured them of my connections. Her son, Hiccup, still seemed suspicious, "Well, that's what we're trying to figure out. Bewilderbeasts can't really control babies, so maybe we could fly on those? It seems a little far-fetched, though, and what if Drago's bewilderbeast is able to turn them against us?"

It was a good plan, but Hiccup was right: the risk was too great. Snotlout, the partner of Hookfang, suggested a direct attack against the Bewilderbeast. They still had some anti-dragon weapons at Berk, and many could be crafted in a couple days. Unfortunately, these would have little to no effect on Hashim. The twin parterns of Barf-Belch wanted to blast Hashim with the babies' fire, but they were still too unpredictable. The others contributed increasingly wild and impractical suggestions until I had had enough. I walked away for a few minutes and, after helping a few hatchling thunderdrums find their way back to the ocean, I thought of something. I ran glided back to the humans and suggested, "What if I distract Hashim? That would open up Hiccup to get Toothless back while Valka oversees the battle for Berk and the others help keep the new alpha distracted." Everyone seemed to agree on this, so I called the Scuttleclaws to us and scattered my thoughts to better tell them how we wanted to take revenge on the deathers, as babies call them. As usual, they were over-excited and could barely wait for the yearlings and Valka to get on them. I opted to maintain my half-form to decrease the chance of Hashim being able to overtake my mind again.

I laughed as the babies tried to get used to the extra weight, and, in response, many of them bumped into me on purpose or flew into ice walls to be even more amusing. Valka kept hers under control, and I flew ahead to make sure the way was clear. I sent out warnings to as many dragons as I could to stay away from the Dreamworks Islands, or Barbaric Archipelago as the humans called it. No one knew where our name came from, but it was in all of the pieces of the creation story we had been gathering. There were other, strange islands to the South filled with metal moving human-like beings, a strange species of viking with magic. I scouted to Berk, only to find Hashim had already taken control of the dragons there. I sent the message back to the scuttleclaws and told them to fly faster. I circled back to the group, who weren't far away now and explained the situation.

"Oh, great! Now we have to fight a Bewilderbeast emAND/em our dragons. You should have done something!" Snotlout accused. I snorted and ignored him. He was just upset about losing Ruffnut... and his dragon. I sped back to Berk to start distracting Hashim and get the babies away from where the main battle would take place. Well, I suppose you know the rest. Hiccup was able to reconnect with Emerald, Emerald became the new alpha, and Valka and most of the other sanctuary dragons came to live on Berk.

What you don't know is the chaos that ensued. It was unheard of for such a young night fury to become alpha, and many of the dragons who would have been higher up on the succession chain were too outraged to consider a duone's role in their safety. As usual, I prepared to leave, knowing that once the battle for true succession died down, the pureblood dragons who now knew I was a duone would hunt me down and destroy everyone connected to me. A few weeks after Emerlad had taken control, he and Hiccup came to see me in the small cave I lived in a few miles south of the main village.

_Why are you getting ready to leave_? Emerlad and Hiccup asked, shocked.

_It's what is done. Purebloods attack duones, plain and simple. They will destroy everyone I care about and cause both of us much grief if I stay_. I had a pot of tea with Hiccup, explaining things in a similar manner.

_Well, I'm Alpha now and can take care of -_

I snorted, bursting out in laughter. _You're a 20-year old night fury! They barely even acknowledge your authority at this point. _Turning more serious, I added, _If you make a move like that, one of the dragons who was in line long before you_ will _kill you_.

Emerald pondered this for a moment, pacing outside the cave. Hiccup looked concerned, but I just explained what was happening. Suddenly, Emerald stopped. _What if I don't "pardon" just you... What would happen then_?

_What do you mean?_

_Well, if I proclaim it to be against laws to attack advisers and close friends of the Alpha, that might be a start._ I pondered this for several minutes. It just might work. If dragons objected, they would be seen as trying to harm the Alpha's close friends. I doubted many would willingly accept this decree at first, but perhaps...

_Wait... advisers?_ Emerald grinned - that stupid human expression.

_I know absolutely nothing about being Alpha, and you've been a huge help since the battle. I could really use your help in the coming months_.

_Well, you've got that first part right,_ I countered, wondering if this was what my brother had thought of. _Hmm... my brother gave me all the knowledge I would need as a bewilderbeast and alpha, so I suppose I could start to show you what you need to do and know._

_And then, once I have the influence and respect, I can pardon all duones!_ I laughed.

_Well, maybe eventually, but for now let's just stick with Alpha lessons._ I quickly brought Hiccup up to date.

"That sounds amazing! When do we start?" Hiccup asked eagerly.

"Actually... for the first several lessons, I'm just going to be with Em-Toothless." Hiccup seemed confused, but I knew it was for the best. The only way for Emerald to gain respect among the dragons is if he could learn to operate without Hiccup. The need for a human made him appear weak. Of course, I only told Hiccup that there were secrets that emno one/em was privy to except alphas. Turning to Emerald, I said in a verbal version of dragontongue, "Meet me on top of the sunrise sea stack at the hard hour." He looked confused, but it was an ancient tradition. "Oh, and show up without Hiccup or don't show up at all." Emerald growled, but consented. I told Hiccup that Toothless would be leaving unexpectedly for training when he figured out the riddle.


	6. Chapter 5: First Day of Training

As expected, Emerald's announcement met with many grumblings and soft growls in private. Only one dragon publicly objected: Barf and Belch. They cared more about their status than anything and had together only half of a defective brain. Ironically, they sometimes were the most ingenious scientists, brilliant strategists, and helpful individuals in the isles. In the form of a terrible terror, I watched from high in the clouds as Emerald tried to jump, swim, or glide from sea stack to sea stack in search of the place I had mentioned. I secretly hovered above his mind so I could see his thoughts. _I wonder if it's Medusa's Reach. No... the sunrise doesn't quite strike that fully, so it can't be that... And what about the hard hour? What the heck is that supposed to mean?_ He went on and on, trying to reason through my instructions. A few others watched on in curiosity, Cloudjumper in particular. He gave me a quizzical glance. Rolling my eyes, I told him what was happening.

_Well, that much is obvious_, he interrupted. _But the real question is... why him? Why not take it for yourself? You clearly have the experience needed, and you are, after all, a bewilderbeast._

_HALF bewilderbeast_, I reminded him. _Thanks for your vote of support, but most people see my human half as they do Emerald's human shadow. They may not attack me after this morning, but they definitely will not accept me as any kind of leader._ Cloudjumper was a little troubled, then seemed to figure out the riddle. He chuckled, and I slapped him with a harmless fireball. He whopped me back with his tail, so I nipped the tip of a fin. It was a juvenile game we used to play, but we still found a measure of pleasure in it. Shaking my head, I settled back into my original hovering place. Toothless had stopped on the base of a sea stack and was just staring at the waves lapping against the shore. He burst out laughing, rather unbecoming of an alpha, but he emwas /emonly 20. He slapped his tail against the water, making it burst into a glorious light show akin to sunrise. Only true alphas could do this, and this proved to everyone and, more importantly, to me that Emerald was ready. I transformed into my formal combination: bewilderbeast with sea dragonus maximus ((red death)) wings. I was simply my natural size and called Emerald up to me. He hesitated, then used a paw to lock his tail fin so he could try to make the ascent.

He struggled at first, nearly falling several times, but he eventually got the hang of it and met me in the skies. Hiccup was looking on in awe from the cliffs as Emerald still struggled to hold steady, but I smiled and took him to the air currents above. I gave a medium growl of dismissal so the dragons would disperse.

_It's been a long time since I've been able to do this_, Emerald marveled. He seemed a bit guilty, though. I could sense he still wanted Hiccup with us, but it had to be done.

_A day is coming soon when all the dragons will return to our home... our real home where we came from._ This surprised him, but I continued. _You have only been alpha for a short time, but I know you have sensed it as well. It is why you pull away from Hiccup, from your friends._

_Yes,_ he admitted with a note of sadness. _I have seen it, and I know why, but I still don't want it to happen. I have also seen a strange dragon of mixed species lead many there before we must leave..._

_I know you want that to be true, but you know how they feel about duones._

_But we can change all of that, toge-_

_NO! _I forced. He flinched back, losing balance for a moment before continuing on the currents. I turned away for a moment, but took a deep breath and opened up a bit. _When I was a hatchling, I destroyed my entire village. The memories of those songs and stories... They are what drive me._

_And you can have them there as you lead our people_, Emerald said gently.

_You're not listening. Every night..._ I realized that I had said too much, shared too much of me. _Enough of that; you know what must be done and what we are preparing for. We have already begun_. With that, I whipped around and blocked him from the air current, forcing him to stay afloat on his own.

_WHAT ARE YOU DOING! ARE YOU CRAZY?_ I just smirked and roared a challenge at him. I charged forward, catapulting him backwards and away from the Gulf Stream. He caught, no... made, a current beneath his wings again and fired at me. I raised an eye ridge and fired back a short ice burst. He banked unsteadily away, the ice catching on his tail fin. That drove him down, towards the deep blue and green ocean. I dove after him; not in help, but in continuing the challenge. He blasted at my wings. _Good! Using precedents. Use your surroundings more!_ I shouted over his screaming. _Oh, and shut up for Thor's sake already!_ We crashed into the ocean. I easily stayed where I wanted, but Emerald was trying to struggle against it. The ice on his tail dissipated, and I saw a slight glow start to emit from his back. I whopped him with my wing, making the glow disappear. He was about to pass out when... His eyes popped open, and all the seawater in his lungs came out.

_Aaand what did you learn from this?_ I asked. He was stupified, staring at his scales and wings. They had a thick coating of water sealant, as there was over his mouth. Only oxygen could come in, and his scales adopted a much rougher texture for greater speed underwater. _Ahem! What ... did ... you ... learn?_

_Right, sorry. _I smacked him with a wing again. _Ouch! What did you do that for?_

_An alpha NEVER apologizes without due cause._ He looked at me like I was crazy, then resumed.

_Well... I can sustain myself in flight_. I glared at him, then motioned to his head. He cocked it, then realized, _When I stopped panicking and picture in my mind a good sustaining air current, it appeared. The same when I pictured the ice melting, and being able to exist underwater._

_Aaand..._ He seemed puzzled that there was something else. I sighed, _Well, I suppose not_ everything _can be instinctual with you... The water is_ always _your friend. Whenever you're in or near water, it will help you in whatever way it can. As a night fury, you are of the Strike Class; as an alpha, you are of the Tidal Class. Do you understand?_

_Uh... I ... think so._ I shook my head. It would probably be many years before Emerald would be able to understand the basics of being an alpha.

_You have a long way to go_, I sighed. His lobes drooped, _But today was a good start_.

_What do you mean, today? That's it?_ I chuckled, then motioned to darkness above. We had been working for nearly 18 hours straight. _I... I..._

_Don't worry_, I chuckled. _It had the same effect on my first day, too._


	7. Chapter 6: Into the Mind

I had spent the last few days coaching Emerald on tapping his physical enhancements, and now it was time to introduce mind games. Hiccup had offered me a spare room in his house, but I still needed to go back to the sanctuary to get a few things. Wings stretching, I yawned and smiled as I felt a light "good morning" brush from Emerald's mind. _Good morning to you, too_, I nudged back.

_So, where are we going today?_ Emerald called out from the hallway.

_Will you keep it down! I'm training Valka._ We chucked; Cloudjumper was always trying to "train" Valka to understand him. After a bit of preening, I emerged in a simple stormcutter-night fury form. Emerald almost bumped into me before I glided and he bounded downstairs.

"Good morning, guys," Hiccup whispered, engrossed in watching Valka and Cloudjumper's daily battle of understanding. Chuckling at his strange mash breakfast, I realized Cloudjumper was trying to say "fire." To the human ear, fire in Dragontongue would sound like "fraaagnah." To the dragon ear, fire in Norse sounds something like "fapnarae." This was the primary difficulty in trying to communicate with each other. In fact, it took me years to be able to understand humans while I was in dragon and dragons while in human form. Valka kept trying to say back what Cloudjumper said, but it sounded like high-pitched Scuttleclaw babble, "fraackmajaw." Shaking my head, I motioned for Hiccup to join us. He eagerly lept onto Emerald's back and glanced Valka's way.

_Don't worry; they'll figure it out eventually_, I sent to Hiccup and Cloudjumper. He looked up and it was like a light bulb went off. Smirking, he said with a bit of difficulty, "Em-er-ald." Valka and Hiccup just stared at him. That's when it hit me; I had heard the same word in BOTH languages. Pointing to himself with a talon, he proclaimed "Clued Hoomper." Again, it came out the same way. Looking pointedly at Emerald, I motioned to him with a wing, "Say the true name of something, and it comes out the same way in both languages." He blinked, confused. I hadn't quite gone over true names with him yet, but he thought of what I had begun calling water, "a-adruan." It came out in both languages.

_Well, that's a breakthrough I never thought a stormcutter would make_, I teased, winking at Cloudjumper.

"Wait,what just happened?" Hiccup asked, very confused.

"I... I think they just figured out how to speak with us." Valka looked between the four of us and burst out laughing. "So, when I was trying to pick a name for you, you were actually trying to get me close to yours." Cloudjumper smiled and nodded.

Emerald, Hiccup, and I practically skipped out the door as Emerald continued naming different things in both languages. Hiccup was finally starting to understand what he meant, and I could sense their bond strengthening. After Emerald named grass, though, Hiccup grew serious. _What's wrong?_ I asked. I had a suspicion, but...

"I know there wasn't exactly an 'emerald' around, but why would he just let me name him Toothless? It seems kind of silly now." Toothless gave a purr-growl and connected with Hiccup.

_I let you call me Toothless because at first, I didn't know what to make of us. After we started bonding, it became a sort of nickname. It's not silly; it's a good name._

"But - " Toothless smacked Hiccup with an earlobe and looked around for something. Then it hit me; I motioned and took to the sky, and, a little confused, Emerald and Hiccup joined me. Purring, I waited for an updraft to signal a climb upwards. I felt the thermal lift us high above the clouds, coming to a peak just as we banked to the right to avoid the downdraft. As I searched for the strange occurrence of both lights, Emerald eventually figured out what I was doing and joined me. "So... what are we doing up here today?" Hiccup wondered.

I just chuckled, _We're finding names._ He seemed puzzled at this until Emerald and I met right at the point of the eclipse. _There!_ I called. Drawn to the unearthly haze, we almost collided while getting close to it. _Tuthliss_, Emerald and I said in unison. Hiccup's eyebrows knitted for a moment, then his face brightened. He finally understood... at least partially.

_This day is sacred to us -_ I began.

_For this is the day we came to this world_, Emerald picked up. _Legend has it that many thousands of winters ago we lived in peace on a world far from this one. All dragons lived in harmony, and the world was at peace. No one fought, and there were no thunders. We did not have a leader because we did not need one. Then, everything changed when strange, two-legged entered our world. They divided us, used up most of the resources, and forced us into hiding. We formed separate thunders, or clans, each with its leader, and began to fight among ourselves for resources. After several winters, we were forced to find a new home. We passed through many worlds - some better than others - before finally arriving here. Once again -_ he shuddered, horrific memories resurfacing. I trilled comfortingly and nodded.

_Once again, humans came to us. This time, from the south - not necessarily from a different world. At first, they were peaceable and made to help and even train us in their ways. Many came to live in human settlements... Until the humans became greedy. They wanted our glittering scales and the secrets of our fire-proof, nearly indestructible hides_, I paused for a moment, allowing a moment of silence for those lost. _Many hundreds of thousands died that night, and more tens of thousands over the following years. Each time there was an eclipse in which the moon covered the sun, the fighting abated somewhat. Stoker fires died out during this time period, while tidal waters maintained their comfort and mystery skin hardened to scales. /ememSince we found peace with humans again, all dragons benefit. Stoker fires remain lit, and everyone is content and remembers the eclipse. We believe that whoever is knowledgeable of or dictating the events that unfold might use this as a sign to guide us. To where, is the question._/em I turned my head to Hiccup to gauge his response. He was in awe, if a bit troubled. After letting the pair collect their thoughts for a few minutes, I returned to the task at hand.

_To answer your previous question,_ I interrupted abruptly. _We are going to practice a technique called Into the Mind._ Emerald groaned, sensing what I had planned. I just smirked and declared, _Let the games begin._ My defenses remained up as he hastily tried to form his. I shook my head; would he ever learn to keep them up? I remained hovering in place as he finally gathered his defenses.

After several long minutes, _What are you waiting for? too scared to make a move?_ He called out.

Good, you're using antagonizing techniques. _It's... _your..._ turn_, I sang out.

He hesitated, then threw himself at my mind, teeth gnashing and claws scraping against my sphere. I felt him slip underneath his frontal assault to find a back door. I smiled, knowing it would be difficult for him to find it. _What in Hermilien's name is this!_ he cried out. Emerald had actually found my collection of doors in under a minute, a new universal record! Over the next hour, he managed to make it inside the sphere, only to be confronted by my corridor of halls. I let him sit there for a moment before kicking him back out.

_What did you do that for? I just got in!_ He exclaimed, exasperated.

_You got in; that was the point of the exercise. Before you could move on, you need more training. There are still a few minds floating around in the corridors, and I don't want you getting stuck, too. It's deadly there. Now that you've achieved this level of training, we'll move on to the next tomorrow._ He grumbled an acknowledgement, knowing pressing me further would accomplish nothing. We flew back to Berk, Emerald and Hiccup chatting about what we had done. I mainly kept my thoughts to myself, wondering what the eclipse might mean this year. In the past, nothing much had happened, but in recent years, dragons had started disappearing without a trace. Rumors were spreading like wildfire that one minute they were flying and the next they were gone.


	8. Chapter 7: An Ordinary Day

I usually didn't spend much time in Berk, as most purebloods still resented duones, but today I made an exception for Emerald. _Today we have made a breakthrough!_ he announced to the village. _True names yield the same meaning in all languages._ All the dragons present snapped to attention, realizing what this could mean. There was a flurry of activity as they tried communicating with their human partners, but I noticed a few off to the side who were trying to hide their smirks. emEmerald/em, I gently pushed. emI think we already have a few duones here/em. He blinked, hiding his excitement since they evidently did not want to come forward yet. As Berkians began forming a basic understanding of true names, I slipped through the crowd to the small thunder of a nightmare, zippleback, and hobblegrunt. Their eyes trailed my movement, but they didn't seem to worry until I emerged from the crowd and slipped beside them.

_Hello, friends,_ I connected to them privately. They grunted the proper acknowledgement for my position as secondary alpha. _I know what you are and would like to welcome you to Berk. We are happy to have you here and can ensure that the pureblood humans and dragons will not discriminate against you. If you do not wish anyone to know of your origins, we will refrain from saying anything._

They visibly relaxed, and their nightmare leader responded, _We are grateful for your hospitality. We had heard of Alpha Emerald's announcement and seek a place to stay until we decide to move on_. I mentally nodded and started making arrangements for human and dragon work for them. When I rejoined Emerald at the start of the dragon races, he seemed pleased with the work. I transformed into a human viking and relaxed into my personal cushioned chair. Astrid on Stormfly, as usual, would be the one to beat, although Eret was doing quite well with Tuffnut's help. I noticed a distraught Snotlout in the box next to ours and asked Hiccup what was wrong.

He just shook his head, "Snotlout pulled a stunt last week while you and Emerald were training. Let's just say he and the twins can make an explosion that could fill the stands..." I suppressed a grin; I had experienced first-hand the treacherous results of Snotlout's flirting. Dragon law prohibited me, as part of an almost extinct species, from even entertaining the idea of being with a human. Snotlout was buff and burly, but not nearly clever or even smart enough to justify breaking the law, and Fishlegs was the other way around. "... don't you think?" I started out of my thoughts and reviewed what my subconscious had heard. Hiccup was saying something about me entering the races, but who would... oh, I get it.

I smiled broadly, "Hold!" and jumped down from the stands, transforming into a full, onyx black stormcutter. _I will be racing in Snotlout's place,_ I announced to the crowds in Dragontongue and Norse. The dragons and vikings alike snorted at the idea, but Hiccup let it stand. After all, it was his idea. Stormfly tossed her head, and Snotlout and Fishlegs started getting all starry-eyed. I just grinned and sped off the moment the horn blasted the start of the race. I wove my way through tight corners and skidded over a few rivers as I searched for the sheep. Along a clear, straight path, I used my stormcutter long-sight to search the area many miles ahead. I spotted the marked sheep over by Sven's farm, a common sheep location. Just as I glided into position, Eret rammed into me with Skullcrusher, trying to push me out of the way. I just cocked my head and snatched the sheep, flying straight and pulling up just in front of the fence. Before he could pull up, they slammed head-first into it. _You snooze, you lose!_ I teased back. Skullcrusher growled and recovered faster than his rider, ascending faster now that he had competition.

Skullcrusher rammed his ruff snout into my paws, buying Eret the time to clamber on. I whipped my head around and watched him for a moment, meeting Skullcrusher's eyes right before I tossed Eret off. Inadvertently, I let the sheep get loose in my clutches, and Skullcrusher seized the opening. He snatched the sheep out of my claws and dove to rescue Eret. I dove after him, quickly catching up, but decided to let him have it so Eret wouldn't get too close to the ground. I banked away and snapped my wings out, catching a thermal to normal surveying height, about 10,000 feet. I banked back to the main village, keeping a keen eye out for sheep. I spotted one in the town square and pinned my wings to make the tight squeeze in between buildings. _It sure would be nice to have a rider for this part_, I thought. It didn't make sense for me to have the advantage of turning into a human mid-race, so I promised myself not to change forms. I landed roughly and scooped up the sheep with my head frills, depositing it on my back. I took off again, this time banking toward the lap pole for the sheep dump.

"Hey, pumpkin!" I rolled my eyes at Fishleg's sickeningly sweet voice. "I've got a present for you!" He tossed a sheep at me and missed horribly. His face fell, but I just rolled my eyes. I slowed down as I reached the baskets, carefully rolling the bleating, terrified sheep onto my wing, and bulls-eye! into the basket. After a few laps, Astrid and I were tied at 6 points, Eret had 4, and the others trailed miserably.

The last lap was about to sound as I pulled up beside Stormfly, _How's the race going_?

She rolled her eyes, but there was definitely a glint of thrill, _Good. It's nice to have someone to actually compete against for once._ She laughed, a squawking trill that sounded more like a parakeet than a dragon. _What made you decide to- Oh, here it is!_ We spotted the black sheep milliseconds before Astrid did and sped towards it. I could have pulled ahead more, but I wanted the thrill. Just as we pulled up to grab the sheep, Emerald shot by and grabbed it! I snorted, banking up and away to avoid a collision. I quickly climbed and dove back down, gaining quickly on Emerald.

He looked up at me and smirked, _You may have a faster dive, but I have a faster tail!_ Emerald whipped his tail around parallel to his body for a few moments, and right before it sent him into a spiral, whipped it back out. _CRAAACK!_ the air seemed to split in two, and I quickly adjusted to avoid the resulting headwind. Growling lightly, I knew I had lost the race and let myself slow down to a more reasonable pace. The only way I could have countered my own move would have been to clap my wings together, which would send Emerald and Hiccup tumbling to the ground. Emerald would be fine, but Hiccup would be injured.


	9. Chapter 8: The Eclipse

"Emerald," I growled, transforming back into a human once we got back to his house. "You could have seriously hurt someone doing that! I told you that move was only to be used in battle. The things I teach you are to make you a better, more responsible and capable leader; not to go around acting like a spoiled hatchling! You have to be more careful." His eyes narrowed into slits when I said hatchling.

_You think I don't know that? I knew you could handle it, so I decided to use one of the tools you gave me_.

I sighed, "The only way I could have countered that would have been to clap my wings together. That could have seriously injured Hiccup. You need to think more before using one of the 'tools' I give you." I walked back out into the village, needing some air. I glanced behind me, Emerald watching curiously, and lept into the air, changing mid-take off into my half-stormcutter, half-night fury form. It was nice to be back in my favorite form, dipping in between clouds and occasionally letting a few terrible terrors and scuttleclaws tug at my tail and frills. I soared higher, letting the increased thermals lift me far above the troubled humans and partners below.

I sighed to no one in particular, _I wish Vastram was here. He showed me the way, so perhaps he would know what to do with Emerald. He's probably twice as stubborn and pig-headed as I was, but.._. I trailed off, wondering what to do. I had given Emerald the tools he needed to function as an alpha, but he did not yet fully understand how and when to use them. My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden _Screech!_ It sounded like a skrill, but they weren't normally out this soon after an- _What in Hermilien's name..._ the eclipse was still happening! It should have only lasted a few minutes, yet the moon was still in fornt of the sun. I sped toward the sound, wondering who was attacking. Emerald, Hookfang, and Barf-Belch pulled up beside me with their riders.

_What's going on? I heard a screech, but skrills shouldn't be out this soon-_ Emerald just noticed the same thing I had.

Barf mused, _Maybe the sun's hiding_. Belch continued, _Or maybe the portal reopened_. We all immediately turned to stare at them.

_WHAT portal?_ I glared.

_We didn't tell you?_ they seemed surprised. _We found a swirling blackness and a couple nadders disappeared_.

I just shook my head, annoyed, _No matter. We need to see if the- _I was suddenly cut off by a vacuum surrounding me. I tried to turn around, back up, even stop, but nothing worked. I could barely breathe and was surrounded by darkness. My surroundings gradually turned to starlight, then a blinding light, and suddenly I was thrown into the much thicker air above a huge stone building. There were humans playing below, but they looked nothing like the vikings I was used to. The girls had an assortment of hair colors, and the boys for the most part had hair shorter than Hiccup's! Gasping for breath, I rapidly flapped my wings, trying to gain traction on the very wrong air. Someone apparently heard the gusts and looked up. He screamed bloody murder and started babbling in a completely foreign language. _Oh, Hermilien,_ I thought. _What have I gotten into now?!_


	10. Chapter 9: School's in Session

Most of the children ran inside the mountainous building, but a few staid and started shooting at me like dragons! One could shoot ice, another some kind of fire rings, and the third... wait, where did he go? I suddenly felt a wait on top of me, instantly driving me down and off balance. I growled and started barrel-rolling, hoping to throw him off or at least convince him this was a bad idea. He started shouting more of the babble, but I could only catch a few words, "stop... what... help." I shook my head, trying to understand him while also trying to catch my balance. I sensed a thermal to my right and immediately banked into it, my claws barely a foot off the ground. The human started sliding back, hitting all of my softer night fury spines along the way. He tried to land just behind me head, but with my upward momentum, he ended up just below me instead. He teleported to the ground as I tried to continue dodging the attacks until I reached cloud clover. I sighed in relief, just then registering that the human had been blue. _Well, that's one more weird thing about this place_, I rolled my eyes. At least this high the air was closer to Berk's sea-level air. I sensed someone approaching, so I softly banked up above the clouds to keep them from gaining the high stance.

I looked around, wondering where the creature was, and the clouds started to dissipate, replaced by clear skies and a woman with wet-dirt skin, snow-white hair, and all-white eyes. Startled, I backed up, "How are you controlling the clouds?" I realized she couldn't understand me so tried again, _How are you controlling the clouds? and where am I? _Her eyes returned to a dark brown, almost black, and she motioned for me to follow her. Hesitantly, I flapped behind her, gradually getting used to the strange air. We landed on the strong roof of the massive building, and I circle her, trying to see how she flew. The woman had no wings to speak of, and her cape was too billowy to support her weight. _Maybe it has something to do with her controlling weather_, I thought to myself.

I felt a mind try to slip into mine and instinctively lashed out, spearing the man with a barbed probe. I scanned his mind for information on this place and the language the people spoke when I realized that this was my host. I sensed his confusion and his attempted communication earlier, _Hello, my name is Professor Charles Xavier, and this is my school for gifted children and people like yourself. _It hit me like a hurricane that he had no intention to invade my mind, just to communicate. I respectfully withdrew from his mind and transformed into a human with stormcutter wings.

"My apologies for the probe; where I come, from when people touch my mind without warning, it usually indicates an attack," English, as the language seemed to be called, felt strange and thick on my tongue. Its words were more flowing than in Norse, but not nearly as much as in Dragontongue. Charles, who was evidently in a chair with wheels, rolled over and seemed more relaxed.

"Where you come from? and what language _do _you speak?" he asked, curious.

"Malaria. It's an island far to the north of here in the Barbaric Archipeligo, also known as the Dreamworks Isles. Berk is... What?"

"Berk? That's an island from a children's book and movie series!" the woman called Storm exclaimed.

"What's a movie? and I can assure you that it is a very real island," I wasn't sure what denoted children's books from regular books, but it sounded like the former were typically not true.

"Let's go inside and continue this over a cup of tea," Charles suggested. We descended several flights of stairs, and I marveled at the sheer weight of the building. I began asking questions about the different styles of paintings and replicas, called "photographs," of different people and places. Down a particularly long hallway, I stopped in front of a painting of a man clad in shiny, silver armor holding a sword against a monstrous nightmare-like dragon. It was bipedal and walked on its wings, but the patterns were very different, and the dragon looked far more malicious. I asked Charles about it and he replied, "Why, that is Saint George slaying the dragon! This is a replica of a quite famous painting." We continued to the office, but I had a feeling this was a world more different than I could have imagined.

We entered a spacious room with light wood paneling along the walls, an ornate desk, a sphere with some kind of colored map on it, and a huge window large enough for a night fury to fly through. A thick, soft carpet of red and gold stretched across most of the room, a nice change from the hard earth and cold wooden floors. A sharp, mead-like scent pierced my senses, causing me to turn back to Charles. He was pouring an amber liquid into a flask as he started to explain, "We've been answering distress calls from all across the world about huge, scaly creatures with two to four wings appearing out of nowhere. A few days later, they disappear again. Most even leave before we can arrive, but we've never been able to communicate very well with them anyways." I nodded; most of us were used to humans speaking Norse, and his mind had indicated only a handful of people still spoke it.

"That lines up with what we've been experiencing. Groups of dragons just disappear mid-flight or in their sleep, and no one knows where they have gone. In fact, I think I heard a skrill go through before I ran into the portal. Have you received any reports of such a creature?" he looked shocked and glanced at Storm. "What?"

"A black bipedal dragon with red teardrops on its wings came through shooting lightning two weeks ago in China," I blinked, utterly confused. Such a time difference had been hinted at in our collective story, but most just dismissed it as confusion after going through a portal. And where... I glanced at the sphere and spotted China, _half-way _across the world! "It disappeared two days later, leaving a large wake of destruction."

"That would make sense; skrills are highly temperamental and extremely dangerous if you don't know how to act around them. The time difference is strange, but to my knowledge, portals haven't been used in centuries. It could just be a side effect of them opening after such a long period of rest," a new thought struck me. "If dragons are disappearing shortly after arriving, this clearly isn't our final destination. If my world is described in books and movies in yours, perhaps our next destination will be as well." Charles spent the next couple hours showing me how to use a "tablet," a thin, metal device that could access books, moving pictures, and something called the internet. He showed me where to get more books and even some comics, the most interesting of which seemed to be owned by D.C., whoever that was.


	11. Chapter 10: The Training Room

Warren, also known as Angel for his snow-white, feathered wings, was picked to show me around. He was the son of a representative to the government, which surprised me a bit. You'd think that the son of an elder would be with his father, being groomed to take over, but it seemed that things worked very differently here. For one, they had running water and had captured the power of lightning! The beds were soft as a changewing's hide, and the technology was mind-blowing. Warren showed me the basketball and tennis courts, swimming pool - not for drinking, trust me - and training center, all filled with children from 10 to 18 years old. Adults, he explained, were typically allowed to go on rescue or defense missions with Charles' team, the X-men. I would start school and "training" in the morning, but I was free for the rest of the day.

Once Warren left, I was swarmed by students."Are you really a dragon?" "How fast can you go?" "Where did you come from?" "Can you breathe fire?" "Are you invincible?" I staggered a step back, not wanting to be weighed down by so much... curiosity. I unfurled my stormcutter wings from underneath my skin, forcing most of the kids away, and took off. While it was still challenging to find my balance, flying was far more relaxing than throwing balls into hoops or over nets. The training room looked interesting, but you needed at least two other people to enter, and the last thing I wanted was - "Hi there!" I whipped my head around to see someone copying my form.

Startled, I asked, "Who are you, and how did you get that form?"

He just grinned, "I copied you, of course! Imitation is the highest form of flattery, you know." I just shook my head in disbelief and swiftly angled into the billowy clouds above. He laughed, a vibrant, twinkling melody, "At least tell me your name; mine's Nolan."

"Kylrm," I clipped. He seemed interesting, but nothing worth fighting for, "Now, what do you want?"

"Kylrm," he sighed. "Such a pretty name." I growled and repeated my question. "Well, I was wondering if you would join me for a trip to the training room. There's a one-on-one setting that I've been dying to try out, but with my empathic morphs, it's difficult to find a willing partner." I lightly brushed his mind to see what an 'empathic morph' was and realized it just meant he could transform into any _living_ creature he wished, including those of legend. I nodded and banked towards the castle with him, wondering what lie in store.

Twenty minutes later, Nolan had tricked the system into letting us use the one-on-one setting, which was technically reserved for adults. Of course, there were _technically_ no rules against younglings using it, and _technically_ I was 20, so I would not be penalized. As we entered, I felt a cold presence against my mind, a technological probe to see what the best simulation would be for us. I pushed Dragon Island to the forefront of my mind at the probe, and the room switched to an illusion of it. Of course, in my mind, I had seen the thousands of dragons there, and they were here as well, watching us.

"Wow," Nolan breathed. "Is _this_ where you come from?"

I chuckled, "Not exactly, but this is one of the islands I frequented." He started playing with different dragon forms, even switching body parts occasionally. "Okay, you're too good at this; have you seen How to Train Your Dragon or read the books?"

He blushed, "I've seen both movies and read the books." At that, I smirked and went into skirmish form, skrill body with night fury legs and tail along with slightly undersized stormcutter wings. Markings and colors were irrelevant in a skirmish, so I let them settle into whatever suited the form. As the countdown started, I realized I was sapphire blue with hot pink patterns and black eyes. Groaning, I rolled my eyes and changed it to shades of green with my typical sapphire blue eyes. Nolan raised an eyebrow and settled into a simple scauldron just as the timer stopped. I immediately sought the high air, rising far above him as he filled his belly with water. I shot him with lightning, giving him a quick shock with all the water he was holding. Nolan fizzled for a good three minutes before looking angrily up at me. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" I just grinned and circled, taunting and mini-zapping him. Nolan eventually took off, flying a little slower now that he was full of water. I spiraled higher, making him work harder to get air for his weight. After several minutes, I whipped around and shot him with a blazing torus of fire, which he tried to counter with water but only succeeded in blasting himself with it from the force of my fire. We continued to fight, occasionally clipping each other's wings or legs but never quite reaching the submission spot. Suddenly, the illusion dropped and a beep signaled the end of the session. Panting, we landed; I was shocked to see we only ascended about five feet off the floor. _It must be another sensory illusion_, I thought.

"Next time, let's try one of your cities," I suggested. Out of breath, he could only nod and transform back into his frazzled human form. His hair now stood on end, and his clothing had a few scorch marks.

Nolan scowled, "Did you really need to bath me in fire that time?" I just grinned and transformed back down, my hair as frizzy as a bird's nest and my clothes soaked. He started, not realizing how close he had actually come to hitting me full-on with the water. I easily evaporated the water and spun and additional illusion around my hair until I could find a brush.

"See you tomorrow at class?"

"See you then!"


	12. Chapter 11: Physics? What Physics?

_I gradually opened my eyes, pain already blinding me. Burning chains encapsulated my paws, starting to sear through the scales. There was no fire or acid, but the strange metal poisoned my tough night fury hide like no other. Pale, fleshy figures spotted my vision; I understood the language, but their words were fuzzy and indiscernible. "Where am I?" I tried to cry out, only to be hit with blunt, pointy object. "You are the property of Drago Bloodvist now. You will tell us everything you know."_

I shot up in bed in a cold sweat. "It was just a memory... just a memory; you're safe now," I kept repeating to myself. Taking deep breathes, I calmed my mind and realized that my scars, sensitive, white-hot ropes of tissue around my wrists and ankles, from that first day were inflamed. _Rap, rap!_ I quickly spun a basic illusion around myself, merely covering up the scars while letting my bedhead and baggy eyes show. "Just a minute!" I called out.

"Hurry up!" an unfamiliar voice shouted back. "You're supposed to be shadowing me today, and I don't want to be late." I quickly got out of bed and made more complete illusions, running fingers through my hair and adding soft carapace clothing in the process. I decided on a figure-flattering dress with leggings, something that seemed appropriate for what they called late fall. I was about to throw open the door when I remembered my tablet and satchel. I quickly found and teleported them onto me, double-checking that I had all the books downloaded onto the tablet. I opened the door just as the girl was about to pound on it again, just stopping short of my face. She blushed, "Sorry, but we need to get going. I'm Kitty Pryde, by the way. You're Kylrm, right?" I nodded and followed her down the hall to our first class. "You're probably going to be taking placement tests for most of the day, but you'll still get to see some of the upper-level courses here. I'm a Senior now, but I'm planning on staying on as a teacher's aide and X-man after graduating."

I just nodded when appropriate, wondering why she was so chatty this morning. The dream memory still worried me; I had never had those dreams before, and they seemed to be starting from the beginning. I would need to find a way to control them before the memories got too far. If my scars became inflamed simply from the first memory, who knows what would happen when things got serious. "... you like?" Once again, I was caught with someone waiting for the answer to a question I had not consciously heard. I quickly reviewed her "conversation" and realized she was talking about Nolan.

I smiled, "It's nothing serious; he just wanted to try the next level in the training room with someone, and I was curious."

She winked, "Sure you were... and I'm sure it didn't hurt that he's one of the cutest guys on campus." I thought back to his frazzled, brown hair and realized I had never actually seen him put-together nicely in his natural form. "Ugh, physics is first today," she complained, looking at her schedule. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about Candela or Charles' Laws, would you?"

"Well, I don't know the names, but if I heard the principles I might recognize them," I tried to remember the brief glance at physics I had seen upon first meeting Charles. "I know a lot about pressure, exertion of forces, air currents, movement of particles, and gases. Would that help?" Kitty's face immediately brightened, and I reviewed with her the various principles of flying, or what she called aerodynamics. By the time we got to her physics class, which was taught by Scott Summers today, I realized that I knew far more about this world than I originally thought. If the mechanics were the same or even just similar, I would have a much easier time maneuvering through the sky, land, and maybe even water one day.

I sat in on Scott's lesson about thermodynamics, in particular the transfer of heat when particles were at absolute temperatures. It was quite intriguing the hypotheses humans came up with, as a dragon's gas chambers could reach almost - or all the way up or down to in titan stage - absolute zero or absolute heat. Most of the principles were correct, although at absolute zero, you could keep the particles around the area moving with ease, creating shards of deadly ice or plasma, depending on the species. We had about an hour before Kitty's next class, so Scott proctored my placement test for science. This continued for the whole day, and I started to understand more and more about not only the history and mechanics of this world, but also about their customs and relationships. Some had tattoos, and others had died their hair neon colors; this was considered somewhat normal here. At dinner, Kitty and I sat together, this time by the blue teleporter who had attacked me earlier.

"Hi there, I'm Kylrm," I sat down with them. He looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Hi, Kylrm. My name's Kurt," he quickly recovered. "As an x-man, though, I'm called Nightcrawler."

"So, Kitty, Kurt, I remember Warren saying that _adults_ join the x-men on missions, but I've noticed several younger teenagers have also gone on missions. What's the difference?" by dragon standards, none of us were adults yet, but humans typically made that transition around 16 as vikings or 18 here.

"Well," Kitty started. "adults can become permanent members of the team, but sometimes they take out younger kids if they show enough promise. Like, they took me out on my first mission when I was 14."

"Ach, and I vas 12," Night- ahem, Kurt, interjected. "So, I heard you and Nolan went for a spin in the training room." I rolled my eyes; Nolan must be either really popular or the bad boy of the school for word to spread this fast.

"Yes, but why must everyone make such a big deal out of it? We skirmished for an hour, then cleaned up."

"Are you kidding?" they asked, incredulous. "No one ever goes in to a one-on-one and ends in a tie! That's why you're so infamous now. Well, that and... uh..." Kitty stopped, looking at Kurt for back-up. He just shrugged, smirking ever so slightly at seeing her squirm. She punched him in the arm - well, would have if he hadn't teleported away - and fell onto the floor in a ball of giggles. She may be an adult, but certainly not a mature one. I laughed with her, though, glad to relieve some of the tension.

"So what is this stuff? It tastes like bread and birds, but I don't know the name." Kurt teleported back from the beam and joined Kitty in staring at me.

"You've never had chicken or pasta before?" Kitty asked in disbelief.

I raised an eyebrow at her, "I lived as a dragon. on the run. in viking times. I didn't exactly have an abundance of options." She shrugged and went on to describe a multitude of different types of food, including something called a hamburger that had nothing to do with ham. Octopus and squid I had eaten before, but never anything fried. She promised to ask the chef to fix something fried for lunch tomorrow. Kitty and Kurt branched off into their separate dorms before I got to my long hallway. "Tomorrow," I sighed as I walked back to my room. "Tomorrow, I find out classes and figure out who I can trust." Seemingly out of nowhere, I heard a beeping sound. I started rummaging through my bag and found a small device, a cell phone! That's what Charles had called it. I touched the screen, and text popped up from Nolan Mitchels.

"Meet me at the training room at 22:00. We're going to New York City," the message read. Not knowing how to type with such a small apparatus, I connected to it mentally and forced my response to the front of my mind. Moments later, it appeared on the screen. "See you there. Just need to grab a few things."

Fifteen minutes later, I was at the door of the training room with various climbing supplies and weapons. I had changed my clothes to a thick blue sweater and dark wash jeans, an outfit I had seen in a few beauty product commercials on the internet. I had looked up this "New York City," and it was a dangerous place. Murders and thefts were commonplace, and I had no idea what Nolan had in store. He arrived a few minutes later, surpirsed to see I got there first. "Once I know where something is," I explained. "It's really easy for me to get back to that exact location. One of the benefits of being half-dragon."

He grinned and pressed a new sequence into the panel. "Maybe I can gain the advantage this time. After all, NYC is where I grew up!" He dashed inside, the NYC program already running. My senses were instantly berated with a fury of lights, sharp noises, and nauseating stenches coming from every direction. Switching to intrared vision, I primarily saw heat and mental signatures, letting me more easily identify Nolan from the programmed minds. After several minutes of pushing through the mobs, I came upon him as strange, brown mammal with a white-tipped tail and underbelly. Nolan was covered in fur, and he didn't seem notice me until I picked him up by the ruff of his neck. He squeaked in surprise and kicked out with surprising force. _He must retain his natural strength when he transforms_, I thought. He transformed into a small black and white bird, trying to lose me in the mass of similar birds.

Smirking, I made my hands and feet sticky with monstrous nightmare saliva and climbed the side of the building. I made it to the roof and sped higher into the skies, just out of Nolan's view. Curious, he flew upward to see what I was doing. I immediately snapped close my jaws, catching him inside my now black death form. Nolan shrieked and switched to a scauldron-sized porcupine, ramming his barbed spines into my tongue. I immediately spat him out with some blood, mimicking his "pigeon" form, and decided to try something new. I hovered for a few minutes before enveloping his mind with mine, blocking his transformation abilities and gleaning all the information from his mind. While this technique was extremely efficient in the HTTYD world, once again I was shocked with the difference and completely withdrew far back into my own mind. Danger sirens squawked at us, and the simulation stopped. We were now both back in our human forms. "I, I'm so sorry. I had no idea!" Nolan just stared at me blankly, but I could feel his pain. Several instructors rushed in, but I had no idea who they were I was so completely focused on Nolan.

"Never. again," he whispered.


	13. Chapter 12: First Day of Training

((just as a warning, from now on, most chapters will include increasingly intense dream scenes; and I'm officially writing Kurt's dialogue in a German accent now))

A couple hours later, around midnight, Nolan had mostly recovered and was in the infirmary resting. "What happened?" Storm asked quietly as she walked me back to my room.

I sighed, "I was trying out a telepathic technique that worked well in my world, but something went wrong. Nolan's defenses... they were practically nonexistent; I thought I sensed walls, but they were just natural divisions. I saw everything, _everything_, Storm. It flooded our minds with his memories, and..."

"He's going to be fine," Storm put her arm around my shoulders. I winced at the touch; my scars were _still_ flaring up. "It'll take a while, but I'm sure you can handle it." I nodded and slipped into my room, hoping things would be better in the morning...

_My eyes snapped open to a scorching sensation ripping through my body. It felt like I was burning from the inside out, the strange metal now restraining my neck and muzzle as well. I groaned, and a guard whipped around and grinned wickedly, "Ah, now we can have some fun. SNIFFLEBUT! GET OVER HERE!" I looked as far to my left as possible, my eyes widening and pupils slitting in panic. A burly human with thick, coursing muscles approached with a whip made of the same metal as my restraints. "Snifflebut" stalked into my cage, raising the whip. It cracked against my scales, wrenching a scream from my lips as several chords barbed long, deep gashes into my abdomen. The monster continued this for what felt like days, alternating between my abdomen, wings, and legs so that just as the wounds began to scab, he would rip them open again..._

I jolted awake, panting as I convinced myself it was once again just a memory coming back in a dream. The scars from that day burned like a nadder's fire, making me wish I didn't have to wear clothing - even if it was just an extension of myself. Nonetheless, I got up from the soft, carpeted floor and decided on billowy, brown pants and a loose, teal peasant blouse. I swiftly brushed my bedhead of thick curls and spun illusions around my body, tinting them more so that the inflammation and ruddiness around my scars would blend in better with the rest of my pale skin. I gathered my tablet, scanning through the books and comics I had scheduled for today, and was surprised to see that the original Robin, Dick Grayson, had spit off from Batman to become Nightwing. I wanted to start reading the next comic and the spin-off series for his character, but I needed to meet Charles early for class assignments.

I jogged down the hall to Charles' office with my satchel slung over my shoulder. I knocked twice and entered, Charles ushering me to sit in a rolling chair on the guest side of his desk. He slid the roster in front of me:

Science: AP Physics

Math: AP Calculus AB

English: Literature and Composition I

World Language: (first year) Afrikaan or Russian

Social Science: AP U.S. Government and Politics

Electives: 4 credits needed

There were also a few specialty courses - telepathy, telekinesis, and transformation - but all of the other courses except for LAC1 were for Seniors! I raised an eyebrow at him, but he was deep in conversation with someone on the outer fringes of his telepathic reach. I quickly glanced through the electives options and picked Sociology and Computer Science for this semester. That would give me one credit towards my electives requirement and hopefully give me more of a transition into this new society.

Charles absent-mindedly signed the syllabus and dismissed me with a wave or his hand. Kitty and Kurt were waiting for me outside the office. "So, vat courses dit you pick?" I handed them the sheet, and their eyebrows shot up. "How dit you geten sat many Senior kourses?"

I shrugged, "Charles just handed me the sheet with the courses he wants me to take along with the Electives sheet. He didn't have time to go over it at the moment, but I guess I just tested out of the lower years."

Kitty and Kurt shook their heads in disbelief. "I guess you're one smart cookie!" Kitty giggled. Goodness, this girl was odd. What does a small piece of sweet dough have to do with being smart?

A bell sounded, and we split up, my first class being LAC1, while Kitty had AP British Literature and Kurt had a chemistry lab. I slipped into my soft chair a few minutes before everyone else arrived and was surprised to see that most were younger students, perhaps in middle school. The teacher, a tall, red-haired woman probably in her thirties, introduced me to the class and said her name was Jean Grey. I was apparently jumping into the second half of the course, so hopefully my writing skills were better than my understanding of these strange people. Everyone got out notebooks, pencils, and pencil sharpeners, so I followed suit, several people snickering at my cover. Kitty said her parents gave it to her as a prank gift, but it was the only notebook left. The cover had a young child with dark hair and light brown skin along with the title "Dora the Explorer" across the top. Based on their looks, I assumed this was a rather childish cover. Ignoring them, I simply flipped it open to Kitty's note, "They won't like it, but trust me; they'll all be jealous by the end of the week."

Remembering how I connected to the tablet, I extended my mind to the notepad and felt a reluctant connection form between our energies. I was able to see now that Kitty had actually written in invisible ink most of the notes I would need for the course. I sat back and relaxed, occasionally adding a few words here and there.

"Kylrm, what is a good topic sentence for paragraph 3?" I quickly scanned the paragraph about chemistry in the textbook again and gave a catchy, simple answer. Jean frowned, "I suppose that's all right, but something more like this would be more appropriate." She went on to give a long-winded statement that danced around the bush - or however that saying goes. I fared much better in Physics with Scott and Calculus with Charles, my other two morning classes.

At lunch break, I sucked the energy out of the food without tasting it so I could more efficiently read our homework for LAC1. I sighed, "Why in Thor's name do you have to make sentences that long!"

I heard Kitty's melodic laugh - finally, a laugh instead of a giggle - and Kurt's chuckle, "Having trouble with Lit?"

I let a small smile out, "I just don't understand why they want you to add all these, these unnecessary flourishes that have no relevance to the data. I would much rather just say what I want to say and be done with it."

Kurt full-out laughed, drawing a few stares, "Ach, I hat sie same problem. You're alvays addink sie extra vords."

Kitty glared at him, "They're not _extra_, they catch the reader's attention." Turning back to me, she sighed. "It's like telling a story; you want as many details and captivating things as possible without overwhelming the reader or listener."

I nodded, but I agreed with Kurt; it all just seemed really unnecessary and maybe even a bit pompous. I glanced at my schedule and grinned, "Guess what's up next? Combat training!"

Kurt groaned, "Logan teasches sat kourse. It's so..."

"So intense," Kitty picked up. "Logan's really into combat; some say he's the best there is, but that means he expects the same level from his students. My first day, I got this!" She pushed aside her tank top strap to show a small scar across her shoulder. "During the knife patterns, he did an upper-cut without retracting his claws and now I've got this scar for life."

I held back a chuckle at the barely-noticeable mark as compared to what I hid. "You know, a little foundation and no one would see it," I commented.

She gasped, "You've discovered make-up and didn't tell me?"

"Yeees, why?"

Kitty grinned, "We are going to have a girl's night! What does Friday look like for you? No more late-night rendezvous, I take it."

"Well, I've got AP gov and poli 8-9, but- "

"Great! We'll start at 9:30 sharp then. I've got some extra studying; good luck you two with combat training!" she called as she jogged away.

I shuddered when I watched her pass through a wall, "You never get used to that, do you?" Kurt shook his head, smiling. "What?"

"Oh, she'll find out soon enough." I frowned, but he refused to tell me anything more, and I certainly did not want to search his mind after, well, Nolan.

"ALL RIGHT!" Logan stormed through the doors to the training room. "Now, we've got a newbie here. You should all know her by now, but her name's Kylrm. Trial tests first; refresher for everyone, then we skip to what I was _planning_ on teaching today. No special treatment!" I smiled, used to this much tougher attitude than that of most teachers. "Dragon and Plasma! On the mat!"

I started as the boy who had thrown fire rings at me earlier approached, and although he did not recognize me in this form, the nickname certainly gave a hint. "So, you shoot plasma?"

He smirked, "And I'm going to whup you!" I felt the energy in him rise like in a night fury and darted out of the way, knowing I would be vulnerable in this form. Curious to see what was allowed, I switched to a speed stinger with proportionate nadder wings and danced around the mat, learning his pattern of attack: step, gather energy, blast, repeat. He kept taunting me, "What, is the wittle dragon scared of a wittle plasma blast? I thought your hides were tougher than that!" I just smirked and dashed up behind him as he stepped for a seventh time - he clearly did not have a shot limit like night furies - and dug my stinger into his leg. He yelped and froze in place from the venom.

I switched back to human form, "Try not to be so predictable next time." He tried to quip back a snide remark, but it was muffled by his paralysis. "Don't worry," I replied to the stares. "with that little body mass it'll wear off in fifteen to twenty minutes." Logan started forward, but I showed off a bit by picking the boy up and carrying him off the mat.

"Aaall righty then," Logan cleared his throat. "While Havoc's out, Speedy will be in charge of fire practice." It took me a moment to realize he meant me. I frowned; the nickname didn't really seem fitting for a dragon. "To the skies!" Logan gestured for me to fly up, and we spent the remainder of the two hour-block dodging and firing. I had the advantage of being able to fire different types of blasts, but eventually I would hit my shot limit and resort to titan mode, which was highly unstable.

I trudged through the rest of my classes of the day, exhausted after what could only be described as an intense battle of popularity. Everyone aimed specifically for me without a thought to each other. I managed to pull myself together for my last class, Computer Science, which for once made sense to me. We started learning about a language called Python and how another language engine converted the code we wrote into code the machines could read, a series of 0's and 1's.

At dinner, Kitty, Kurt and I caught up on each other's days, and I noticed a strange after-glow about her. It hit me that I hadn't seen Colossus at combat training. I carefully looked at her emotions her for a moment and let the matter go without saying a word. They were both of age, and based on what I had read, relationships and intimacy were considered very lightly and practically on a whim in this part of the world. Around eleven, I headed back to my room, explaining that I hadn't slept well last night and needed some more rest.


	14. Chapter 13: Flight Club

_Panting, I could no longer fight my searing bonds. It took all my strength just to stay alive. By now, the metal had burned through my scales, leaving wide bands of angry tissue exposed to the air. I half-worried, half-hoped an infection would come and spread, but somehow I was managing to heal myself after each session. The scars remained, but what sleep I could get activated accelerated healing. I heard the door bang open without creaking closed again and realized perhaps my time had come. I concentrated on the form of a black terrible terror, like Drago's messengers, and started to transform. I had just hit the breaking point between half-form and terrible terror when I felt a force like my limbs were ripping from my body. Fire coursed through my veins, making me tremble in its wake. I tried to go through with the transformation, but it was too painful, and I finally gave up, going back into the half-stormcutter, half-night fury form. The pain abated somewhat, but a new arose far more anything I had felt before. An unseen force shattered the outer walls of my mind, driving into the edges of my feeble city. I tried to resist, throwing up walls and diversions, but he crashed right through them into the heart of my mind. "You are mine," he growled and snapped his teeth around my center, causing my body to go entirely limp and simultaneously rigid with fear. He drove mental nadder spikes and scauldron venom directly into my core, making my skin light on fire from within and my two hearts to slow to almost a stop. And then they did._

I jolted awake, shaking and thrashing like a lunatic. Everything was in reds and blues, and my vision swarmed with black and white dots. My insides still churned and bled from... My vision cleared, and I regained control over my other senses. I gradually eased into a sitting position, praying no one heard me. I shivered from the memory; it had never replayed that intensely before. In the months following my escape, I had relived dozens of times each day and night night I had died and impossibly woken up. But nothing like this; I emfelt/em myself die. I dragged in deeper and deeper breathes, slowly bringing my heart-rates back in sync.

I felt a gentle, but urgent, mental brush from Charles, _Kylrm, are you all right? You reached out to me, and it felt like, well, like you were dying._  
I sighed, _Sorry, Charles, it was just a me-uh, dream. I'm fine now_. I could sense his suspicion, but he let it go.  
_Just try to get some more rest_, her murmured.

_I will_, I felt him withdraw again. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table and realized I still had three hours before I had intended to wake up. I tried to fall back asleep, but each time I felt the emptiness of the death-state return within a few seconds. Sighing, I shook into a terrible terror form and flew through the fireplace in my room and out the chimney. Once among the clouds, I relaxed into a half-stormcutter, half-night fury form. Testing the thicker air, I wondered how high I could go in this world. The mansion was just a speck below me now, and the air was only slightly thinner than around Berk. Curious, I ascended higher and higher until I felt the atmosphere give way to the vacuum of the night sky; the moon was bigger than I - or probably any dragon for that matter - had seen her. The moon filled my vision with her valleys, craters, and beauty. Only, she wasn't really shining tonight as we had always thought. The sun shone brightly on her, reflecting his light down to earth.

It suddenly hit me that I shouldn't be able to breathe in a vacuum. Scott had said in physics that vacuums, like space, were devoid of air and therefore you could not breathe outside of an atmosphere. And yet, here I was very much breathing and alive, a stark contrast from earlier. I extended my mind outward in search of what was fueling my lungs. After a few minutes of searching, I realized that while there was no oxygen, there was an overabundance of hydrogen and nitrogen. Grabbing the periodic table of elements from my chemistry mind file, I weighed the gases going to my cells and realized that I breathed both of these gases. Re-entering the atmosphere, I carefully angled myself to make sure I still ended up back at Charles' school. As I dove, I continued to check the gases; the only two ever carried to my cells were hydrogen and nitrogen. _Well, I guess you learn something new every day_, I thought.

I turned back into a terrible terror and dropped down the chimney just as the sun broke the horizon. Strange, the sun was clearly awake when I flew outside the atmosphere, but it was just rising here. I quickly spun the standard illusions around myself, evaporating soot from the chimney off my now human skin. I glanced at my schedule before heading out for the specialty flying class. I hadn't seen many students with wings specifically, but I had heard plenty of stories about Banshie and a few techno-whizes who could "fly" with tiny engines in metal suits. Warren taught this class, although apparently Raven, or Mystique, was making a guest appearance today. Like Nolan, she could change her appearance to whatever suited her, but she was naturally blue. Curious, I wondered if my natural form would ever settle. It always shifted, and sometimes I would even feel inclined to stay in my in-between form, black with pure starlight as a half-night fury, half-stormcutter.

As I trotted onto a small cliff overlooking the school, a number of students landed beside me, warming up for the lesson. I saw Nolan out of the corner of my eye, his skin a little paler than normal, but he seemed much better now. He was sporting loose pants and chiseled abs, making me wonder if those were natural or just a part of his current form. A dark-haired girl with over-sized butterfly wings nudged me, "Hi, my name's Clarice. Is this your first class?"

I nodded, "Nice to meet you; I'm Kylrm." Warren landed in front of us, only it didn't smell or feel like Warren. I cocked my head, wondering if this was Mystique.

"Hello, class," real Warren's voice called down as he landed. Most redoubled in shock at the sight. He just grinned, "This is Mystique. She's our guest teacher for this lesson. A world-renowned shape-shifter, Mystique will break off with morphers while I teach a regular lesson with the rest of you."

Mystique nodded and went back to her natural form, a rich blue with hints of blue-green scales around her upper chest and face. The rest of her skin was remarkably smooth, and she seemed to be one of the few morphers who was comfortable in her own skin. As was her custom, Mystique wore no clothes, letting the small carapaces leave small details to the imagination. "Today, I will be fine-tuning your transformation skills, particularly in mid-flight and during a fight. We will be focusing on your technique, speed, and accuracy," her voice was melodic, yet there was a strange flatness to it. She bore no accent that I was familiar with, and the tamber was slightly unnerving. "Phoenix, Daedalus, Morphel, come with me."

She grew dragonesque wings out of her back, and the three of us followed suit since we were the only morphers in the school. I extended stormcutter wings, Nolan bat-like wings, and Melody eagle wings from our backs. I adjusted my wing size a few minutes after taking off, making sure we could all maneuver well. "Now, I've read Xavier's profiles on each of you, but I want you to describe yourselves."

"I'm a telepath, can transform into any type of HTTYD dragon, human-dragon, or mix of dragon species. I am also slightly telekinetic and can connect with machines," I offered.

"I can transform into any living thing," Nolan shrugged.

"I'm a Darcel," as if that explained _anything_ about Melody. We all raised an eyebrow at her, "What? You don't know what a Darcel is? Fine, I can morph into anything or anyone I've come into contact with. I can also blend into my environment." The realization hit me that a Darcel was, in fact, an alien species. I had read about them on my first day when I connected to the internet for the first time. Darcels were short, black-skinned humanoids with milky-white eyes. Since Melody had no such characteristics, I could only assume she stayed in an unnatural form while at the school.

"Switch!" Mystique called out, transforming into Warren to demonstrate. I chose a terrible terror, Nolan an eagle, and Melody an Eastern dragon, a snake-like, bearded dragon with short wings and four stubby legs. "Switch!" We changed our forms again, choosing various-sized animals and animal-human combinations. I could only do dragons, but there were so many species it was extremely difficult to change into something entirely new every few minutes.

"Stop!" we started to switch again and returned to our forms: battle form, pegasus, human with wings. Mystique smirked, "Now, first we'll do one-on-one, then one-on-two, then three-on-one. Daedalus and Morphel; you're up first." We tussled in the air, being careful not to seriously harm each other. This was especially difficult with Nolan's starter form as Melody and I could not use fire against him. At seemingly random points Mystique called for us to change into specific forms, sometimes while we were wrestling. This gave Nolan or Melody the perfect chance to strike me since my in-between form was the most vulnerable. By the time we were ready to move on to three-on-one, we were panting with exhaustion, and I only had two ice blasts and three magnesium fires left. "You get a 10-minute break for water. Then come straight back up."

We immediately tucked our wings to dive into the take-off yard. There was food and drink waiting for us; despite my dry throat and empty stomachs, I carefully tested each food before absorbing the energy. There was no telling who had access to our food while we were training, and old habits die hard. It was past noon; Melody, Nolan, and I met eyes and groaned, realizing this was going to be a lot more involved than we originally planned.

We spent the rest of the day with Mystique, trying to blast her out of the sky. She changed forms with ease, and after several hours, Mystique wasn't even breathing hard while we were still panting from earlier.

Melody flew up beside me, "We have _got_ to figure her out!" We had been working separately, Melody too arrogant and Nolan a little phased to work together.

I suggested, "We need to work together. It seems she is countering our forms with the exact opposite, wearing us down without having to do much work. We've been sleek and fast, what about heavy and hard?"

"Like stone stance," Nolan breathed. We turned to him, confused, "from the Stormlight Archives Series. It's strong and stable, and you don't move much."

"Make the opponent come to you," Melody and I agreed. "Let's do it!" I roared at Mystique, causing her to turn and look at us curiously. Nolan dove down and started hitting Mystique with his hooves, taunting her to come up to us. She caught on but continued up to see our strategy. Once she got up, we started blasting her but remained in position. I went to a gronckle-hotburple form to give more powerful blasts, and eventually we wore her down. She went back to her natural form - with wings, of course - and held up a hand. We stopped and hovered in front of her.

"Good, you finally came together in the end. You need teamwork to overcome a more powerful opponent," Mystique's heart rate had significantly increased; and, although her breathing remained calm, it was still a small victory. "Most team leaders will not know how to properly allocate you in battles, so you need to know how to overcome differences without completely taking charge. You're dismissed for the day. You'll pick back up with Angel next week."

We glided down to the mansion, hearts racing and wings aching. "Well, see you around," Melody waved as she headed back to her room, explaining that she wasn't fond of human food. Nolan and I separated at the dining hall, heading to our respective crowds for the quietest dinner either of us had had in a long time.


	15. Chapter 14: Is This Home

((sorry, but as much as I love Marvel and X-men, I've gotta move on))

_The void slowly released its acid-clad grip on me, and I awoke with a start, gasping for air. The armored dragons dragging my body on a cot stopped, realizing their charge was indeed alive. I shivered, the bewilderbeat's mind still lingering around the edges of my mind. Our consciousnesses briefly touched, and I immediately jerked back, creating massive walls between us. He sauntered up to them and pressed forward, only to bounce back, shocked. He shook his head and tried again, but my walls held firm with my terror. The alpha snorted and backed off, not wanting to put _that_ much effort into it. "How..." one of the human guards stared at me in disbelief. "Drago! She's still alive." That name snapped me out of the daze, and I tried to push myself off the cot, only succeeding in tumbling over the side onto my back, reopening whip, dagger, bite, and a number of other wounds I didn't remember getting. Groaning, I rolled onto my feet and started running - well, walking quickly from how damaged my legs were - as fast as I could towards a light at one end of the hallway. I had almost made it when a hotburple landed heavily on me, forcing the air out of my lungs, crushing at least six ribs, and snapping my spine. "Now, we're going to open you up and see what makes you tick," Drago smirked wickedly._

I shuddered, dreading tomorrow night's memory-dream. For the past week, my dreams had simply been the relatively peaceful void that had swallowed my mind for two days while Drago's men tried to unsuccessfully skin and dissect me. I was thankfully disembodied and felt minimal pain, but nothing like if I had been even partially conscious. My natural healing had protected me, just like it did now as I numbed the nerves around my bruised ribs and spine. I checked the clock and was not terribly surprised to see I had only slept for an hour. If I returned to sleep, it would start continue the memory dream before jerking me awake. Whatever force had caused these to start wanted to keep an exact schedule, or so it seemed.

I joined Nolan in the kitchen and made myself a midnight snack. "Weird dreams?"

"Weird dreams," he confirmed. We seemed to be the only two people in the school who couldn't sleep at night. Nolan subsequently had difficulty staying awake during the day until I gave him the recipe for firecrackers. A small piece of mutton smothered in Tabasco sauce and jabanero pepper seeds rolled in a tortilla with spicy mustard. Even Texans had difficulty swallowing this much heat in this combo, but it got the job done. Logan sometimes joined us, but no one came that night. "Do you think we'll ever say what our dreams are about?" Nolan wondered aloud.

I chuckled, "What, be like a bunch of little girls at a slumber party? Nah, I'd much rather _keep_ my dignity, thank you very much."

"Like when you dunk your head in a bucket of ice? Yes, you're the personification of dignity."

"Hey! That was for the ice-bucket challenge, remember?"

"Sure... but aren't you supposed to dunk a bucket of ice water _over_ your head?"

"Ha ha, smarty pants. Now what's to say I don't dump some ice water over _your_ head?" Nolan laughed and gently pushed me with an over-extended arm/octopus tentacle, so I threw a jabanero at his face. He caught it at the last second, being careful not to touch his eyes as he snapped a piece off to pop in his mouth. I rolled my eyes and pulled tomorrow's batch of firecrackers out of the oven.

"So, can anyone become telepathic?"

I sputtered, "What? Uh, I guess so. I've only heard of one person, though, who figured it out. And, well, she was an alien, so... Ahem, why do you ask?"

"Well, I had just been wondering. I mean, it would be great to be able to talk with you more, and we don't have very many classes together, and maybe you could even teach me how to defend myself," Nolan blurted out.

I blinked, "What brought this on? I can teach you how to defend yourself without being telepathy, but I get the feeling that's not the real reason."

Despite further prodding, Nolan refused to tell me why he wanted this. Eventually, I threw my hands up and sighed, "Fine. If you don't want to tell me, I'll just teach you defenses. All right?" He nodded eagerly. "Well, the first thing to know is that anyone can access any mind at any time. The trick is knowing how and when to activate your defenses. Everyone naturally has minor defenses, usually in the form of a stone wall about... let's say a foot high, otherwise everyone would know what everyone else was thinking constantly. It wold be chaos. To defend yourself against a natural telepath is almost impossible, but you can at least slow them down until someone can help you or you trick them into leaving. Break concentration, and defenses are useless. Now, focus on the most important thing to you." I sensed him delve into memories and experiences before an image started to form, turning the tiny stone wall into a two-story version of me. I sighed, "Really? Try something different." The image blurred and became flames. Not real flames, but flames of... spice? I shook my head, "Okay, that will have to do for now. Focus on the spiciness of that firecracker you stole and only focus on that."

Once I felt he had a relatively good foundation, I brushed against his mind. The image blurred for a moment then strengthened again. I brushed again, lighter this time, and it wobbled. I chuckled; he must be very ticklish indeed if a mere mind brush made him giggle like a baby. I stopped and resumed, now pressing against his defenses, discovering that his weak point was his insecurity about his natural appearance. I did not catch exactly what it was, but Nolan thought it was hideous. There were a few other points of weakness, but that was the most vulnerable. I withdrew and let him know what I found. "It's pretty good for your first try. Keep it up and try to find stronger memories, places, things, or even emotions. The stronger they are within you, the stronger they are as defenses, but try not to use me or people close to you. This will put them in danger if you encounter a hostile telepath. Now, let's -"

"WHAT is that?" Nolan stared wide-eyed at the wall. I looked behind me, only to see a black swirl.

"It's a portal," I said matter-of-factly. He looked at me quizzically, and what I said hit me like a freight train. "IT'S A PORTAL!" I whipped around and put a hand testingly through it. The land was definitely much cooler than in here, but then again, that could just be the portal.

"Do you think it will take you home?" Nolan somehow felt both sad and excited.

"I don't know," I breathed, feeling the pull. "but I have to try." I reached out my mind to my few possessions and brought them to the kitchen, checking to make sure everything was in order. I weakly smiled at Nolan, "Keep practicing. Tell everyone I'll miss them, but I had to go home. Only tell Charles, Kitty, and Kurt what happened here." He silently nodded, and I caught the glint of a tear forming just as I turned and walked through the portal.

It was much easier this time, probably because I wasn't flying, and I passed through into darkness in a few minutes. I turned around and waved, knowing Nolan wouldn't be able to see me, but it was a nice sentiment. The portal closed, and something clicked, blinding me with light. I blinked several times to get used to it, realizing there was a man in "modern" clothing pointing a handgun - a glock by the looks of it - at me. "Definitely not Berk," I muttered.

"Now, give me all your money. and your jewelry!" the man yelled. I looked him over, taking in his ragged clothes, matted hair, and filthy clothes. "I said- "

"All right, all right," I put my hands up. "Just calm down. I'm a little lost; could you tell me where I am?" I batted my eyelashes innocently.

He seemed a little taken aback, "Parkington and 5th Avenue. Just south of the Sprang River."

The streets were definitely New York City, but the river... You've got to be kidding me, "I'm in Gotham?"


	16. Chapter 15: Bats

**You probably aren't reading this if you don't already know, but just a reminder: Batman is Bruce Wayne. I set up a poll to see who you think should train her; I already have a couple plot options set up, so be sure to vote for your favorite!**

"Uh... yeah, now give me your- " I grew tired of his demands and knocked him out against the wall with a flick of my wrist. I turned to see if the portal was still open; of course not, but always good to check.

"Gotham. The worst city in the D.C. Earth is where I end up," I sighed, wondering what other indignities I would have to endure tonight.

"Uh, are you all right, Miss?" I whirled to see a man in a black suit of smooth armor stepping out from the shadows. I narrowed my eyes, taking in his muscular build and the slightly lighter figure on his chest... right.

"I take it you're the Batman?" I sighed.

He nodded and gestured to the attempted robber, "How did you do that?"

"I suspect you already know that answer; you've been around mutants before," his knitted brow reminded me. "Oh, right, sorry; you call them meta-humans, right?"

"What brings you to Gotham? I haven't seen you around before," Bruce eyed me suspiciously. There was something about his eyes, a dangerous glint. "I said, _what brings you to my town_."

This was very different from the Batman I knew; far more dangerous, and there was something about him that just felt... off, "Portal. I accidentally fell through one and ended up here." Technically, that was true; I had just walked through another portal on the way.

"What sector?" I cocked my head, trying to remember what on earth he was talking about. "What sector of the universe do you come from?"

It hit me he was probably talking about the Lantern divisions. I quickly reviewed the ones in my head, but all of them were probably well-known and -travelled at this point. That is, if John Stewart was Earth's Green Lantern, "Who is the Green Lantern of this sector? Perhaps this matter would best be cleared up with him."

Bruce narrowed his eyes and threw me against the wall. I yelped in surprise; there was _definitely _something wrong. "I'll be asking the questions here," he growled.

"666," I gasped in shock. "I'm from Sector 666." That was the site of the manhunter massacre and was home to several humanoid species. While remote, it was within reason that I could be using an inter-galactic translator.

"Okay," Bruce let me go, and I took a couple steps away from him. "I'll call your Green Lantern and tell him to come get you. It looks like the portal's gone, so you can stay with me until he gets here." I sighed in relief; it would take Morro at least three months to get here since Hal Jordan had the only... wait, what if this wasn't the same timeline I thought I was on? Bruce probably would have substantial defenses from his run-ins with tele- and em-paths, so I couldn't exactly probe his mind without his knowledge. A quick scan could probably do it, but "You're awefully quiet. What planet do you come from?"

The question caught me a little off guard, but at least there wasn't as much venom in his voice. I considered the question carefully, but there was no good answer, "I'd rather not say. Both sides of your reputation carry even to my sector, and I would rather keep my past to myself."

"And how did you learn English? Inter-galactic communicators are expensive and rare; practically non-existent in Sector 666," I groaned inwardly. Sector 666 was perhaps _too_ remote for my situation.

"I know people," I shrugged nonchalantly. He narrowed his eyes, but we stayed quiet for the rest of the drive. I couldn't see anything outside the Batmobile back seat windows, so at least I didn't have to wear a blindfold. Of course, I already knew where we were heading and familiarized myself with the despicable, sewer stench of the city. The choking odors were occasionally broken by the scent of fear, blood, or sweet bread.

I felt the distinct jolt of going from the paved road onto dirt and realized we were almost there. When the vehicle finally stopped, Bruce extended a hand to help me out, but I gently pushed it aside and overextended my legs, eager to see if the comics... oh, Thor! The comics could not do it justice; no words could. To call it a cave would be an insult; the vast caverns were fully decorated with artifacts, lush carpets, and intricate railings. Monitors spread in a semi-circle around a dark swivel chair with a small, rough cushion. Two beds sat by the monitors, separated by a thin, blue-and-white plaid curtain. Lining the walls were glass cases containing weapons, artifacts, and "trophies" from various captures. Three tall cases in particular caught my attention; one was devoid of anything but a body frame, about the size of Bruce, the second was a little shorter and held a bright red, gold, and green costume with an "R" stitched onto the left censored. The third and smallest held a similar suit that was clearly intended for a petite girl's frame. I flinched when I saw faded splotches of crimson on the Robin suit, realizing I came shortly after Jason's death. "That explains a lot," I muttered under my breathe.

"Explains what, exactly," I jumped at Bruce's voice right behind me. I whirled around, wings threatening to flare at the potential danger.

I sighed, "Well, now that we're inside the batcave at Wayne Manor, might as well tell you the whole - well, at least most - of the story, Bruce." He did a double-take and looked ready to kill me. I stood my ground, despite the confirmation that Bruce was at the most unstable, bordering psychotic point in his life. I quickly outlined what I was and my journey here. I added that I had read numerous comics and literature and watched several tv shows and movies to understand something about any alternate universe I might come to next. I even showed him the comics, although it appeared that only one had remained as D.C., the others had changed into "Marvel" comics about the X-men. "This," I flipped to the remaining D.C. comic. "is the last comic I purchased before crossing over. I had only just finished reading it when I crossed over, so that must somehow relate to the exact timeline and point on the timeline that I arrived in." I flipped to the last page, revealing Bruce kneeling over the charred remains of Jason.

"So, what happens now?" Bruce sighed, collapsing into a swivel chair by his monitors.

I considered the question for a moment, "In the 'Marvel' universe, I fine-tuned flying and other special skills at Charles' school. Perhaps I could find a tutor here to work on combat without my abilities."

Bruce looked up in surprise, "Why not with your abilities?"

"Well," I hesitated. "If I've learned anything in the past few weeks, it's that I could end up anywhere at any time. It's not far from the realm of possibility that one day I will end up in a world where I cannot use my abilities from convenience or the safety of me and/or others. At the moment, I rely on my telepathic connections and telekinesis to get myself out of most situations. When those do not work, I transform. I would be dreadfully unprepared if I suddenly found myself unable to use such abilities."

Bruce nodded thoughtfully, "I'll get in touch with a few colleagues, see if they'd be interested. In the meantime, you can stay here while I start the training process." He tossed me a dagger and pulled an old sword from its sheath on a nearby stand.


	17. Chapter 16: End of the Road

**Have you fired a gun before? If you had, you would know it goes ****_PRAW_****, not ****_BANG_**** when fired (at least, my dad's three handguns do).**

**And Barry as in Barry Allen. By the way, has anyone seen "The Flash"? It's really quite amazing.**

I peeked around the corner, careful not to – _PRAW!_ I ducked back behind the wall as a bullet whizzed by. I briefly considered my options: run and hide – well, that's not worked well so far – run _towards_ target and dodge the bullets – not likely with normal human speed – or figure something else out. The target was keeping his distance, so I would have to come to him. I glanced up to catch the time, only to realize that there was a small flaw in the design structure. Smirking slightly, I gathered my strength and leapt just high enough to grab one of the metal light fixtures. I swung up on top, hovering for a moment before letting my momentum carry through to land feet-first on the target's shoulders, "Gotcha!" I made a grab for the gun, and we tussled for several long minutes before he finally admitted defeat.

_Later that night…_

"I'm telling you, Bats, the girl's too good," I quietly eavesdropped on Bruce and Wildcat from my room in the watchtower. Strange, I had only been here a week, and they had already showed me their "top-secret" base. Then again, I _had_ said that I knew its location and pretty much everything else about it. "I can't train her if she already knows all the moves. She has great technique, but there's something she just isn't telling… us." I could almost feel Bats glaring at him. "Not that there's anything wrong with that," Wildcat rushed on. "but I feel like this secret is hindering her training. She seems to know you the best, so…"

Bruce sounded a little… well, a little like my first night, "I'm too busy to take on another Robin."

"Of course, of course not," Wildcat hesitated. "but she doesn't have to be a Robin. She's going to leave eventually, so you probably won't even have her for more than a couple months. Just give the girl a little direction."

_A little _direction_?_ my pupils slitted. _OH, I have more than a _little _direction planned for you tomorrow_. As usual, I kept such thoughts to myself, but it was still sometimes annoying to hear them talking about me like I was just a child. Then again, that's actually what I am – by bewilderbeast standards, anyway. I was about to turn back to the conversation when I realized they had separated. _Man, I missed it! Oh well, I guess I'll find out soon enough_. Pretty much everyone repeated Wildcat's thoughts anywhere between a few hours and a few days after I started "beta training" with them. Even Diana thought I would be better off with someone else and was more direct than most that it should be Bruce.

Still, if I was going to be trained by Bruce, I _certainly_ was not going to be called Robin and wear that ridiculous costume. Whoever designed it must be color-blind! Red and green _that_ brilliant did _not_ go well together. Take it from someone who's been a hobblegrunt, who _only_ see red and green. "Phoenix" was my stage name in Marvel, so maybe I could-

"What do you think?" Bruce walking into my room jolted me out of my thoughts. He smirked slightly, "I know you were listening."

I cocked my head, "And how would you know that?" He lifted an eyebrow as I made the connection. "I suppose it would make sense for you to know when telepaths are around, but sensing one when they're not occupying your mind or the mind of someone close is an entirely different matter."

"I convinced J'on it would be a good idea."

"I missed the last few minutes, but I would like to train with you. Just not as Robin," he frowned, so I rushed on. "Not that Robin is bad; I just don't personally like the name… or the outfit."

His face softened as he chuckled, "Fair enough. What do you have in mind?"

A few hours later, I had decided on a black scale jumpsuit with skin-pockets for gadgets. Like all my carapace clothing, it could change with my body, and I decided to test my luck with a more theatrical effect. I secreted monstrous nightmare saliva all over the suit and set it on fire. It burned a bright reddish-orange, but I decided to change it to a pale blue fire instead.

I spun in front of a mirror, watching the flames dance and sparkle like a dragon. Well, phoenix now, "Miss Kylrm, I must say that looks quite splendid."

I smiled and took one of the cookies Alfred brought, "Thanks, you look good, too." He was in a fancy black blazer and pin-stripe pants with a white button-up shirt. Apparently, this was typical butler wear, but it still amazed me how he could stand the heat of Gotham summers. I let the flames die and the saliva seep back into my skin so Alfred wouldn't have to stand the heat. "How was it that time? I'm trying to reduce the heat of the flame, but I need the blue fire to get the desired effect."

"Alfred, will you stop pampering my proteges?" typical grump came trotting down the stairs in a... suit? "I have a board meeting in 20 minutes and don't want her fat."

I chuckled, "I'm half-dragon. My metabolism is almost as fast, if not faster, than Barry's. I couldn't get fat if I tried." I rebelliously grabbed another double chocolate chip cookie from the pile. Bruce shook his head, but I could see a faint smile under the facade. He left a few minutes later, so I plopped down into his swivel chair in front of the monitors. "What do you think, Alfred?" I switched back into a billowy t-shirt and skinny jeans. "Happy Island, Starling, or West and 54th?"

Alfred set down the plate, shaking his head, "You really need to get a social life, Miss. It doesn't do you much good to spy on everyone without interacting."

I faked a pout, "Oh, come on, you know it's fun. Maybe I'll even see a little more than Nightwing's shadow for once." As I turned back to the monitors, my mind drifted to my brother. I silently mourned him for a few moments, realizing with a twinge of guilt that I hadn't thought of him in months now. Alfred sighed and left after a few minutes, so I decided to get at least a little bit of sleep in.

**After that end, you know what's happening next chapter - at least, you should based on trend.**


	18. Chapter 17: Music of the Night

**Just as a warning again, these memory dreams are getting more intense. They will keep getting intense until an extremely powerful, disturbing sequence.**

**Remember that episode of Justice League Unlimited when Diana was turned into a pig? That's where I got the idea for the music scene. I figured if Bruce can sing that well, he can probably play the piano, too. (not always the case, but trust me; it ****_really_**** helps). I am really itching to get to a certain adorable scene I have planned... Must. Have. Full. Plot. Line!**

_I screamed in pain as they tried to carve out my femur _again_. Every time they cut deep enough to cut into my ligaments, my muscles would heal around the blade and force it back out. Every nerve in my body was on fire, and the chains were starting to cause damage I _knew_ had to be permanent in what were now my wing arms and two legs. I felt the blade saw through - wait, WHAT! Pain exploded through my left leg as the blade burned its way through my sensitive tissue and muscles. My leg kept trying to heal around the blade, but the wicked spikes doggedly tore apart my flesh. The searing metal slammed into cartilage, wrenching another ear-splitting scream worthy of a thunderdrum. I blacked out for a few seconds, the pain reeling my mind back to consciousness as my leg hung by a single scale. Black blood gushed out the stump, but before it hit the ground or the sons of half-troll cowards, I had the presence of mind to catch it and start looping it back into my body. My body started shaking violently, and the last scale released, throwing the men back and me against the far wall. The world teetered, and my vision grew spotty when a massive impact nearly shattered my left hip. My head slammed into the wall, but not before I realized what had hit me: my leg. My blood boiled feverishly as the muscles, cartilage, and bone knit themselves back together._

Eyes snapping open, I slowed my heart rate as I noticed a soft, fuzzy blanket covering me. I was still in the swivel chair, and this time I had only slept for 45 minutes. I shuddered, my entire body aching from the memory of that ordeal. In probably a couple more weeks I would have to endure another death and gradual rebirth. Hopefully we won't be on one of those extended, over-seas missions I keep hearing about from Barbara.

I stretched and started walking back to my room. Well, when I say room, it's more like a miniature house! There's a lush bed fit for a king, walk-in closets filled with fine silks and jewelry, and the bathroom. I had learned what a bathroom technically was in Marvel, but this was on a completely different level. There was a tub that could easily hold a night fury, a shower with sprayers on _all four walls_, and a floor-to-ceiling mirror with extensions on either side so you could see yourself at every possible angle. I was about half way there when I heard two melodies coming from a solid chestnut door. Curious, I poked my head in to see what was making them. A black, elongated box with a rounded ended was at the center of the room, and Bruce was sitting on a matching bench hitting white and black cubes.

"What's that?" with a clash of cords Bruce jumped up. He relaxed a bit, seeing it was me.

"You've never seen a piano before?"

"A pee-ano? Uh, no. Is _that_ what you were playing?" Bruce nodded and motioned for me to sit down on the bench beside him.

"Yes, it helps me relax, and the music tends to have a soothing effect." I shot him a dubious look and started playing experimentally what he had. Of course, with my own spin to it. The rhythms were strangely out of sync and yet somehow fit together to make a cascading waterfall of sound. Bruce was right; it did help calm my nerves. As I felt the song come to an end, I looked back at him. His eyebrows were halfway up his forehead in shock, "It's not possible that you haven't seen, much less _played_ a piano before!"

"What, was it that bad?" I was a little more confused than usual.

"That was excellent! It sounded like you've been playing for years," Bruce shook his head and retired to his suite while I pondered the instrument a while longer. A few pieces by Bach and Schoenberg were on the stand, so I tried my hands at them. I found Schoenberg more entertaining and played until the wee hours. By then, my fingers could fly across the keys, and I could hear the melodies in my head before I teased them out of the warm wood.

Around three am - which I only knew from a grandfather clock chiming moments after I finished Schoenberg's fourth Sonata - I switched books, only to see something entitled "Alma del Corre." I recognized the language as Italian and thought I'd give it a try. The words felt strange, elongated unnaturally and yet beautiful. My throat started burning a bit, and something about the resonance felt off. After a few more frustrating attempts, I realized it would not be as simple as I originally thought. Perhaps I would ask Bruce about this. After all, if he had an aria book, perhaps he had or at least knew of someone who instructed this music.

Stretching, I yawned and went to fix breakfast. Alfred would do it, but cooking helped me relax. I relaxed into today's natural form, a human with Scauldron wings. Eggs had always reminded me of Egg Biters, cannibalistic fiends who killed and ate any undefended dragon egg or hatchling. I ended up making some sweet bread with pecans and raisins. Odd thing, raisins; on Berk, they would never even have thought of letting perfectly good fruit dry out. It was quite delicious, though. Pecans rarely grew on islands with dragons; the only place I could find them was what I now knew as the "Kung Fu Panda" island.


	19. Chapter 18: Blood Red

**Hello faithful readers :) I feel I must apologize for the tardiness of my recent chapters, but school and life have made getting chapters out difficult. Thanks for understanding, and welcome back into the world of Kylrm :) Also, this was written on my tablet in a car, so please excuse any typos/weird errors. The keyboard, while physical, is tiny. I also didn't have wi-fi, so if the femur is actually in the leg, woops :P**

"Hey, we're training, not trying to kill each other!" Bruce swiped his night stick over my head, narrowly missing me.

"The enemy won't show mercy, so neither will I!" he huffed. I spotted a small opening by his right arnpit and feigned left, waiting for his blow to ping against my arm before I whipped around to strike. I came within centimerers of him, a resounding _CRACK_ rang through the training sim as our night sticks connected. He relaxed slightly, and we bowed before backing up. Setting his weapon on a dais, Bruce checked his laceration from an encounter with the Red Hood the night before. We still had no idea who this guy was, but at least we had ruled out one of the Joker's gang. Although... that could be viewed either way. At least with the Joker we knew who we were dealing with. A new guy in town, though, meant a new profile, new goals, and a new chase. "You're ready."

I stopped mid-wipe and turned to him, cleaning cloth still in hand. "What?"

"You heard me. You're ready to go into the field with me." Eyebrows raised, I stared at him for a second before slowly nodding and finishing with the weapon. No questions, just an answer. At least now I didn't have to worry about him hurting anyone out there. Bruce was getting much better now that he actually had someone to train, but he was still pretty shaken up about Jason's death. It was odd, though; I had formed enough of a connection with Bruce that I could feel the people he was with the most - Clark, Barbara, and Alfred. I could even feel Nightwing, although his mental signature was fainter. I didn't feel his parents or the other Robins. Yet, for some reason, I could feel the mind of Jason the strongest. Perhaps-

"Well? ready to finally use your suit?" Bruce almost looked happy that we were going out together.

I frowned, "Who are you and what have you done with Bruce?" He laughed heartily as I rolled my eyes and did a quick transformation into my new suit. "So, what's up for tonight? Mob or Red Hood?"

"Both," he motioned for me to get into the batmobile, and we set off. "The Red Hood was just seen at an abandoned warehouse, the central meeting place for mob bosses. We're going to intercept that bastard before he can take over Gotham."

"So..." a long paused marked only by the beating of my hearts. "We got a plan or are we just going to try another grab 'n run?"

Bruce paused a moment, "Our main objective is RH. It might be a chase, but it could also turn into a stand-off."

"Well that's helpful," I grumbled, rolling my eyes. Bruce lightly punched my arm - well, lightly for him. It felt like a freight train slamming straight into my femur. I punched him back, making his handling waver a bit. Bruce glared at me before turning his attention back to the road.

A few minutes later Bruce spun us through the garage door, angling the batmobile so we could slip out without people realizing what had happened...

"Uh, anyone here?" no one stood in front of us pointing guns, much less shooting. I relaxed my pose slightly, moving off to our right so we could cover more ground. We kept easily within ear- and eye-shot, as Bruce was, understandably, paranoid about losing another trainee. I used a cloudy mirror to look into a room before flipping around the corner, slowly approaching a black dufflebag on what looked like a round conference table. Above was a bridge of sorts with a small strip of cloth hanging from a screw. "Bruce! I've got some-" eyes wide in shock, I jumped away from the dufflebag. Bruce was at my side in a second, no, a moment. "I-it's heads. The dufflebag is full of heads."

Bruce recoiled sharply and shakily strode to the table. Nothing, _nothing _had shaken him that badly, aside from Jason's death and his parents' murder. Bruce nodded before zipping the bag closed again. "Can't be more than a day old. He was here."

"_Correction_!" a slightly raspy, yet vibrant, tenor voice called out. "I _am_ here." I saw him first, hidden on a rafter by the shadows of the roof. Bruce saw him a moment later, and we grappled up to the bridge as the Red Hood jumped a mere few feet south of us. We rushed him, Bruce's cape flying behind him, almost hitting me in the face several times. He grappled to a nearby building, not a small feat when it was 10 yards away. We used the same technique, I have to admit. We chased him across the ledge of a few more businesses, climbing ever higher above the chaotic streets filled with near-deafening honks and screams. We were almost on him when he executed a loop around the side of a glass building, smashing a hammer-like contraption through the glass and steel. We lept as one to the nearest building, extending our grappling hooks just in time.

Bruce was about to continue the pursuit when I grabbed his arm and growled, "It's him or the civilians. We can't take both." He glared at me for a minute, the killer instinct gleaming just beneath the surface, before he relaxed and nodded.

An hour later the floors above the breach in structure were evacuated, and the building stabalized. Every so often, Bruce looked distant, making sure he knew every detail so we could reconstruct what happened from both our perspectives once we got back to the batcave. The people we just saved kept their distance, fully aware of his reputation, although they clearly knew nothing about Bruce's new companion.

A young reporter came up to me as we finished welding the support columns together, "Um, hi, sir - or Ma'am! May I ask you a few questions?"

I looked at Bruce, who just shrugged and started heading back to the batcave, "Sure, what is this about?"

He visibly relaxed a bit, "I'm Jimmy Johnson with the Daily Planet. In Metropolis?"

I nodded, "What brings you here?"

"I- uh, we - had heard there was a new player in Gotham. The Red Hood?"

"..."

"Okay... Was he responsible for this?" He gestured to the building, and I hesitantly nodded. "Okay, great! No, not so great. But, well, you know what I mean. It's not great that he did this, but it's, um, great to... get that information?"

I had to chuckle at his lack of grace, "We don't discuss much with reporters, but you're a friend of Lois. So I'm making an exception."

"Oh, of course! And I really appreciate you talking with me, even if it's just becaue of Lois. Not that Lo-" I lifted my right hand.

"Just get to the point, _Jimmy_."

He gulped, pulling at his collar a bit, "Do you know who the Red Hood is?" I just raised an eyebrow. "Right, of course you don't. Because then you would have caught him already. Any suspects? ... Any leads? ... Don't you know anything?!" Jimmy yelped as my distant gaze narrowed and became more of a glare.

I was turning around to leave when, "Wait!" I hesitated, perhaps a tiny bit impressed at his stubborness. "If you can't discuss the case, can you at least tell me something about you?"

"I'm the Phoenix," with that, I fired up my suit and lept out of the building, using false wings to glide to the streets.


	20. Chapter 19: Wings of Night

**Warning: the dream sequence is a short rape scene. If this is too disturbing, you can skip it. While it is not essential to the plot, this starts to explain a few things that will happen later.**

_"All right, you dogs, hoist her up!" I jolted awake only to sink into the chains, wondering what they would subject me to today. or tonight. Whatever time it was. "Hey, boss, I was wondering... could we have some, you know, fun with her?" I snorted, "And what would you call what you've done to me so far?" They just looked at me strangely and cackled, "Oh, _that_ kind of fun. Go right ahead." I shifted in my chains, trying to see what was going on. I heard the _shlink_ of a belt, and a thump. Why would they be taking off their bottoms? They had forced me into a half-human form before I slept, was that- _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!_ Something prodded at my back entrance. What the- I screamed bloody murder as a pain like no other set my insides on fire. The man kept pushing in and out, in and out, for several long minutes before releasing something inside me. Shaking violently , I relaxed, thinking it was over. Not by a long shot. Every guard and keeper had his way with me, and whatever they had injected me with was pouring out of my raw, still bleeding entrance. Exhausted, I realized the men had finally stopped coming. For hours after they left I could still hear their laughter echoing through the halls, and some were talking about their first virgin and what I would be like as a dragon._

I slowly opened my eyes, running my hands across my face before slowly lifting myself off the wood floor. Looking at the clock, I saw I had slept for a mere thirty minutes this time, _If this keeps up, I won't get more than a minute's sleep_! Body more sore than usual - it had been my first time, after all - I simply cast concealer illusions and slipped through my bedroom window, taking a night fury form for stealth.

A light breeze fluttered my wings as I lazily glided between commercial and military jet streams. I sighed, thoughts drifting once more to Berk. I wondered how long it would be before more dragons arrived. And where were the dragons who were already here? You'd think the news or someone would have seen massive sky- and land-based dragons by now! The few Sea Dragonus Maximus I had visited with Valstram on a few occasions were fairly young, but the drain on resources should have resulted in massive food shortages world-wide.

"Kylrm!" Bruce's voice barked through an earpiece.

"What is it?" there was an edge to his voice.

"Where are you? The Red Hood was just spotted- "  
"Got him!" I quickly zeroed in on an oil storage warehouse on 5th and 54th. Descending through civilian airspace, I camouflaged before transforming into the Phoenix a few feet above the rooftops. Alighting on a rooftop across the street, I searched the windows for any sign of the strange man. A grappling hook locked onto a ledge beside me, giving way to a silent figure clad in a tight black jumpsuit with a blue bat across the chest. He hesitated, surprised to see another person up here. "Nightwing?"

"Yeees, Phoenix?"

"Yep. Nice to finally meet you," legs still sore, I stood up to shake his hand.

"Rough night?" Dick motioned awkwardly to my legs.

"You could say that," I smiled slightly, knowing we were talking about two _very_ different things. Although, how did he guess?

Dick cleared his throat, "So, Bats coming soon?"

"Already here," Bruce emerged from the shadows on the street below. Extending my false wings, I glided to meet him while Nightwing grappled down.

"Oh, so she gets wings but I didn't?" Nightwing visibly relaxed and lightly jabbed Bruce in the arm.

Raising an eyebrow, Bruce almost smiled, "_You_ designed the persona, remember?"

"Fair enough," Dick's eyes lit up as the thrill of the chase stirred our blood. "Together, two, or three?"

"Two." We split up, Nightwing flanking while Bruce and I slid through the front door. Like the mob base, the warehouse appeared empty. Hundred-gallon vats of orange gasoline lined the floor, and a beat-up car fountained more oil into the room. several bridges like at the other warehouse made it possible to scope the oddly quiet building.

"Bats, why would he come here? There's nothing _that_ valuable to steal; no one to kill," I stole fleeting glances at him, trying to figure out what was going on here.

Bruce stopped dead in his tracks. "He wanted _us_ to come."

"Man, this guy is narcissistic," I muttered.

"No, there's something else..." Bruce bolted up the stairs to the next level of bridges. He practically jogged to the center, looking over the railing as if he had seen a ghost.

I ran up beside him, "Bats? Tell me what's wrong."

"This was my first failure," haunted, Bruce turned to me. I blinked, confused. "I followed one of the first people to take on the Red Hood persona, Dwane Harrison. I confronted him here, on this very bridge. Harrison claimed he was being set up and was about to tell me everything when..."

Bruce distantly glared at a weaker section of the railing, and the memory practically screamed at me from the forefront of his mind. The man had tripped on his cape and fallen into one of the vats. "It wasn't your fault," I tenderly placed a hand on his arm.

"Hard to forget that night, huh?" the Red Hood appeared on the next bridge up.

"Why do they need _this_ many bridges!?" I huffed, taking a fighting stance.

Red Hood chuckled with a slight rasp, "This is the sight of your first great failure. Some would even say your greatest failure... but certainly not your last, right?"

Bruce's knuckles whitened as he balled his fists, "And what would you know of that?"

He just smirked under the mask, "Ah, memories..." and shot the gas coming from the car!

"Is he nuts?" I started to follow Red Hood, but Bruce yanked me back as a series of explosions sent the car rocketing through the bridge where I was about to step. Our grappling hooks shot up, pulling us through the now shattered glass ceiling. I caught a glimpse of Nightwing pursuing the man, but they were quickly obscured by the smoke. We shot out of the killzone just as the warehouse exploded in a massive cloud of orange-yellow fire and thick, slate grey smoke. Shaking my head, I ran back into the flames now that I didn't have to worry about the initial blast and shrapnel.

"WAIT!" I barely heard Bruce through the roar of flames, my reinforced skin was now flame-resistant. Watching for the Red Hood, I weaved through fallen beams and support columns. Something felt off, familiar even, about the explosion. Muscles rippling and sweat pouring, I lifted a particularly heavy steel beam out of my way, only to find a small digital timer and an identification plate covered in soot.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!" Nightwing shouted from above.

"Finding evidence!" I called back before half-changing to fly up to him. He took a step back in shock at my wings. "Yes, I have real wings. Now let's go!" I grabbed him by his armpits and flew us out a window to avoid more smoke inhalation. "You okay?" I asked once we were clear and I had changed back.

Dick coughed roughly, "Yeah, just breathed in too much smoke. Slippery bastard got away."

"Well, come on. I'm sure we have something to help with your lungs back at the cave," the first half of the drive back was silent but for the roar of the batmobile's engine.

"You shouldn't have gone back in. It was reckless and beyond dangerous," Bruce whispered coldly. _Not_ a good tone of voice.

"I got enough of the bomb, didn't I?" I glared at him. Of course he would be angry, but this felt different. "Something was familiar about it. If we can figure out the MO, we should start to see the patterns more clearly."

"You could have gotten yourself _killed_!"

"I'm not Jason!" Bruce recoiled sharply, and Dick's eyes slid between us cautiously. "I know you're still upset over him. and I get it! It's hard to lose someone you care about, but you can't expect me to play everything safe. I've survived far worse than what he is capable of, and I'm _half dragon,_ for Thor's sake! I can handle a few flames. I sometimes even like it!"

"We're here," Dick announced quietly. Bruce and I realized at the same time that the batmobile had stopped. Everyone got out and moved to our own corners of the batcave to change and cool down a bit.


	21. Chapter 20: Dragoness Charm

Sorry for the delay, but I'm glad to see so many views :) I've been trying to figure out which climax to go with and originally wanted to wait until I had figured that out. This is a little shorter than normal (actually should have included this in the last chapter, but it's a little late for that), but I thought you would enjoy a cliffhanger (if you didn't see Batman Under the Red Hood) for once :)

What do you think: a sequel starting with a world-wide thunder, one starting with moving to a new universe, or none at all?

"So, you're..." startled, I whipped around in my chair, prepping a plasma blast.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled, swallowing the gas when I met Dick's eyes. "I'm half-dragon, bewilderbeast to be exact."

"Well that explains a few things," he sighed, seeming almost relieved. "You found anything?"

I nodded, glad to change the subject, "While the initial explosion was caused by the lighter, the Hood had placed a bomb in case we tried to follow him. But... it would be impossible to leave this much of the bomb in tact by accident. The Hood used a new type of explosive, C5S10, that Wayne Enterprises developed so the military could recycle more bomb parts. By mixing it with regular C4 the Hood still made it hard to read the plate, but not impossible if he sets off another explosion."

"So he's rich or knows someone good. _Real_ good. He wanted us to find it, to find him. We should tell Bruce?"

I shook my head, "He's already too deep. What you _can_ read... it's not good." I pulled up a model of the reconstructed nameplate on the screen. Only three raised letters hadn't been blown or swept away too far by the blast:

**Ja** **T**

"I don't see... oh, well, it _could_ mean nothing," Dick stole a glance at Bruce, who was still reviewing footage from traffic cams and the batmobile.

"I don't see how; it fits," Dick cocked an eyebrow. "The taunts, the wordplay... only the Joker has even attempted to get to Bruce like this. Besides, coincidences don't exist in this world - however cliche that sounds."

"Still, look for bomb makers with aliases with those. We don't want Bruce suspecting-"

"Suspecting what?" we both jumped as Bruce seemed to just appear behind us.

"Okay... I guess I haven't been getting enough sleep," I chuckled, earning a glare from Bruce and another cocked eyebrow from Dick. "We thought you could use a night off. Just something to get away, relax for once."

Bruce sized me up for a moment before sighing, "Not until we catch the Hood. Then I'll leave you two lovebirds for as long as you want."

Dick's face turned red as a classic monstrous nightmare, making me laugh, "Okay, Bruce, whatever helps ya sleep at night." Dick lightly punched my arm, rocking slightly from my return.

"You get too many of those from Bruce," he chuckled, rubbing his arm slightly.

"Or maybe it's just my girlish charm," I batted my eyelashes, finally getting the length right to look flirtatious but not quite sexy. This time I even wrenched a laugh from Bruce.

"Oh, I think there might be more of the 'dragonness' charm in that one," Bruce smiled as we recovered somewhat. A beeping from his station flocked us to his black swivel chair. "He's back."


	22. Chapter 21: Connecting

We listened in as the Black Mask went over the details of an arms delivery, a potent mix of RPGs, automatic rifles, and explosives. As the crime boss over all Gotham, he was almost as notorious and feared as Batman, at least in the States anyway. Without a word Bruce and Dick pulled up their cowls and headed to the batmobile. Something on the line, though, stopped me. Straining to hear, I just barely made out that raspy but vibrant voice smirking "Sounds good to me." I instinctively sent my mind out across the radio frequency, and sure enough, there was another radio connected.  
"We've got company," I warned Bruce, slipping into the tank. "I just made _him_ out cutting in on our frequency."  
Startled, Bruce looked at me like I was crazy and floored towards the drop-off point, another high-rise rooftop. "You wanna fill me in on how the Red Hood got our frequency?"  
"A lot's happened since you left. He probably just ended up on the same frequency we did. I rotate it, _remember_?" Bruce stared daggers at Dick, who stared back for a full minute before shrugging and falling silent.  
As we approached the warehouse chopper blades whirred to land, "Okay, so should- Okay then..." The roof opened and Bruce grappled out, quickly followed by us. I shrugged at Dick; new for me, too. Prepping the "sparkler," as Jason had dubbed the short range EMP grenade launcher, Dick waited for us to attach thick cables to hold the copter down as we burst onto the roof. Startled, I saw the Red Hood already taking off with the shipment, leaving behind a mass of surprisingly breathing guards. Firing a direct hit to the copter's side, Dick motioned for me to check on the scum - such an odd word, that; criminals look nothing like algae.  
"You wanna dance? Then let's dance!" the Hood swung down on the throttle, hurtling the copter and weapons into a free-fall.  
"That gonna hold?"  
"Nope," Bruce swept off the side of the building, disappearing from sight as Dick stood annoyed for a moment.  
"So should I- do you want me-" glaring after Bruce, Dick pulled a sturdy staple gun out of his suit, making me snicker. Even the hardiest gadgets had ridiculous beginnings. I knocked some Latino guy in the head with his rifle when he started to wake up, "Hey! We're supposed to have informants, _remember_?"  
I raised an eyebrow, senses suddenly sharpening as the rope drew taught, starting to tear off the brackets, "You grab him; I've got this." I pounced on the line, continuing Dick's work while adding more mass, managing to stop the cable just above cars. Of course, slapping down a couple dozens bricks on the cable didn't hurt, either. Scanning the area, I just barely caught a flash of black and blue rounding another ledge. Shaking my head, I leaped down, twisting my right ankle oddly in landing before cutting off those nerves and pursuing the cowled trio, "What is it with these guys and ledges! It's like crime movies and car chases, for Thor's sake!"  
Catching up to Dick, I nearly fell into the street as they leaped across the distance. Dick mentally chuckled, only driving me back to gain the momentum. Rolling to lessen the impact, I came even with the duo, "About time you showed up!"  
Glaring at Dick, I kept running, knowing he would pay for that comment later. Dancing across beams of a new construction, my foot kept falling at odd angles to the cold, metal beams, throwing me off-balance a bit. _I'll have Alfred look at it when we get back_, I thought. Dick frowned, stealing a glance at my foot before nearly tripping himself.  
"Eyes ahead, you two!" Bruce growled. We snapped back to attention, finally starting to gain on the near-silent Red Hood as we followed him through shattered glass and an office. Grabbing an oxygen tank, he crashed through a window moments before we would have reached it and threw the tank back up, igniting the life giving and taking gas. Flinching, I grabbed Bruce and threw us behind a couple reinforced desks as the flames passed harmlessly by.  
"Anyone else notice how convenient this all is?" I shouted over the roar. The flames died enough to let us pass, and we leaped back into the chase. "Why do you-"  
"ENOUGH questions!" Bruce growled, flipping on his targeting system. I dropped back slightly so he had the room to throw the batarang lasso, looping around the Red Hood's ankle just as he leaped towards a ledge below near the central train station. Smirking, I pulled even with Bruce on the thin ledge, only to jump in my skin as the Hood sliced through the rope with a curved, serrated knife.  
"What? He's real good," Dick and I watched, stunned, as the Red Hood landed with a soft thump on his intended ledge before jumping through the glass ceiling of the station. Landing where he had just been, Dick stressed, "Okay, he's _really _good."  
"Nothing we haven't seen before," Bruce jumped after him, our trio rolling again to lessen the impact. Looking around briefly, the Red Hood was nowhere- wait... I heard the ticking moments before Bruce and tried to get a closer look at the bomb, but he swept us away, towards the track. The explosion threw them down but caught something on me, hurtling me to the other side of the tracks. right next to the Red Hood.  
Startled we sized each other up for a moment, "Hi, JT."  
"I think we both know what that stands for," he whispered, smirking. Looking up, he called out above the crescendo of an approaching train, "You haven't lost your touch, Br-" and his words were lost by the train and his motorcycle revving into action. Bruce managed to pull Dick onto the platform moments before the cars blocked my vision of them. Looking over my shoulder briefly, I sped after the motorcycle, watching, waiting for patterns to emerge that would contradict what we had seen and heard. "Come on, it can't be him," I muttered under my breath.  
Tapping into speed stinger abilities, I managed to just barely keep pace with the Hood, kicking up dust and bits of concrete and gravel as I chased him down 32nd then 60th then L street before I finally heard Bruce yell into my earpiece, "HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING? Get back here. _NOW!_" Reluctantly, I dropped back to a normal jog then walk before realizing that it was now just before dawn, my sense of time betrayed by the city lights and sprawl. Frustrated and somewhat tired, I walked into an alley to change into a night fury, winging back to the cave.


	23. Chapter 22: Discovered

**By the way, please tell me you get who the Red Hood is by now. It's a bit of a pain to keep avoiding his name. *sigh* either way I'll reveal it in the next chapter. I understand there is quite a bit of dialogue from the movie in this, but it's really important for that scene.**

Barely able to walk, Dick had long-since returned home with a badly sprained ankle by the time I got back to the cave. Landing next to Bruce I mentally prepared myself for a lecture about safety and recklessness and all that jazz, but he was silent. Chair on the verge of toppling, he just stared at the primary monitor screen like it was a cobra moments away from striking. Worried, I shifted to see around his broad shoulders. The monitor had sound specks up from earlier when... oh.  
"Stay here. I'll be gone for a while," Bruce whipped around to leave.  
"No way," I glared, putting a hand firmly on his arm. I softened slightly, "you don't have to go through this alone. If you're not going to let Alfred in, at least let me come with you."  
Bruce hesitated, but shook his head and fled to the batmobile. Sighing, I let him leave; if he didn't want my help, I shouldn't exactly force it on him. After he was out of sight I sat down on the med table and let feeling return to my ankle, grimacing as I saw the damage. Swollen and inflamed, my foot was twisted at an odd angle to my ankle. Alfred chose that moment to walk in with some hot chocolate, nearly dropping the tray when he saw my foot, "Why didn't you come back sooner! Goodness, you're lucky I've dealt with worse from- "  
I waved him off, "I just need to reset the bone; looks like a compound fracture and aggravating it made some bone fragments come loose." Exhaling slowly, I felt my mind reach into my foot, caressing the tender muscles and ligaments as I brought the bone pieces back into alignment. Once everything was back where it should be, I lit up the bone, wincing slightly as the cracks melted and re-formed into the right shape. I double-checked my work, making sure the fibers and cells were just as strong as they had been.  
"You never cease to surprise me, Mistress Kylrm," Alfred smiled in wonderment.  
Shaking my head I chuckled, "You really don't need to call me that. I'm not even really part of the family."  
My earpiece buzzed, "Kylrm, is Bruce there?"  
"No... he just left. Remember what we talked about last night?" he stiffened slightly. Sensing the change in direction, Alfred set the tray on the main desk and went upstairs, not even bothering to make an excuse.  
"Yeees, what of it?"  
"He broke down the audio of last night, and... well, let me play it for you," I switched the earpiece to speakerphone and played the audio,

"You haven't lost your touch, Bruce."

"...there's no one else who knows. It would have to be one of our own," Dick sighed. "So, where did Bruce go?"  
I shrugged, "There's- hold on..." I switched on the batmobile's front camera, displaying a rusty support beam a few blocks from the East End drug trade headquarters. "Looks like he's by the East End bridge, maybe near Qular street?" I switched to Bruce's cowl cam, only to see him fighting the Fearsome Hand of Four... with help. "Dick, they're fighting against the fof. Let me handle this."  
"Wait, you ca-" I switched off his feed, making him snort in annoy...ance.  
_Huh, when did that start happening_, I thought. Shaking my head, I suited up and took the batpod; flying would be too risky. Engine roaring, I sped through the streets of Gotham, watching for the tell-tale _swoomph_ and light blue swords that- there! I turned sharply onto 25th, a couple blocks from Qular Street, _Well, I guess I wasn't that far off_. I parked next to the batmobile and was about to grapple up to the roof when a bulgingly fat black man burst out of the front door, nearly bowling me over. "Woah, what's your hurry?" I swept him onto the batmobile, cuffing his blood-slick wrists. Sniffing, I definitely caught a whiff of Jason. "Just hang out here for a sec, 'kay?" I left him mumbling something about assassins while tied to the batmobile as I grappled to the roof, ducking just in time to avoid a nasty gash to the head as I hit the top ledge. "Someone's edgy today," I grinned at the assassin.  
"Who the heck are you?" a somewhat feminine voice spat behind the mask.  
"Pinkie, meet Phoenix. Phoenix, Pinkie. Shall we continue?" bewildered, she just stared at me for a moment, a big mistake considering my speed. Smirking, I whipped around her, delivering a 1-2 punch to her side before dancing away, jumping back slightly to avoid her light saber-like weapon.  
"It's just Woman, idiot," she growled. "I'm the one who holds this group together."  
_Baited_, I thought and smiled, playfully bouncing, "Of course, I just thought your skin was such a pretty blushing pink, _Pinkie_."  
Howling like a banshee the woman ran at me, laser sword pointed at my chin. I swiftly dodged the attack, sidestepping away from the Dynamic Duo to dance closer to the roof's edge. "Call me Pinkie again and I'll slit your scrawny little throat!" she screamed, momentarily drawing the attention of her comrades.  
"Phoenix, what are you doing here!" Bats growled over the com.  
"Looking for attention, obviously," I bantered back.  
"Oh, how sweet, you found another sidekick," we both glared at the third wheel. Well, technically he was why we were here...  
"Just shut up and fight," Bats sounded like he was about to-  
"Mmph!" distracted, I felt my arm half-tear from the laser's impact. _Patch it up, patch it up, don't let them see_, I backed away, casting an illusion so they wouldn't see the flesh searing back together.  
The woman's triumphant grin turned into a sour, confused frown as she thankfully didn't appear to see any - or at least much - of the damage, "I coulda sworn I saw..."  
I cut her off with a batarang, clipping her right shoulder to implant a tracker, "You two ready to finish this or are we going to keep beating around the bush?"  
"It's not, as easy, as it looks!" I could almost hear Bats glaring at me through the com. Glancing over, I noticed they were both pretty much on the edge of losing it.  
"Hey pretty boy, wanna play?" I danced closer to the duo, jumping over a saber swipe to kick Bulk in the stomach. I winced as my still-tender foot sent streaks of lightning up my leg - and not the good kind. Twisting mid-air, I almost managed a graceful landing but was grabbed by Bulk and swung into the side of a guard house. Growling, I leaped to my feet, taking a moment to blink the stars out of my eyes. Too lon-  
Bulk fisted my neck, long, thick fingers digging rough nails into my suit, "Now who's the pretty boy?"  
Scrunching up my face, I just loooked at him for a moment before he realized what he had said. Momentarily confused, he loosened his grip slightly, giving me the freedom to swing my legs back then straight into his groin. This time it was his turn to grimace as he tried to recover. Dropped, I sucked in a deep breath and slammed into him shoulder-first, driving him back but out of his trance. Growling, he grabbed my shoulder between his two dragon-like hands and squeezed, snapping a few layers of tissue and bone. Gasping in pain, I stumbled back, right shoulder and arm now practically useless. Breaks and fractures were easy enough; knit some tissue back together, reform connections to cells, but he had practically pulverized parts of the bone and tissue!  
A _swoomph_ made me duck, but I should have jumped. Reinforcing my bones, I still hissed in searing pain as the Woman's laser nearly cut my feet out from under me. Her saber lodged in my bone made me stumble forward with full force, throwing the Bulk back a few feet. Startled at my new weight, I hesitated a moment before bunching my leg muscles and full-out launching at the hulk of a man - waaait, I feel like there was someone _named_ Hulk... nah, that would be too weird - catapulting him off the roof and into another building. "Ha! Did you see that?" I grinned, nearly tripping over my feet as I tried to turn back to the fight. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the saber and yanked it out of my legs, bringing it up in time to block- "Oh, come on!" The moment I touched the saber it returned to a normal sword, slicing in half as hers came down.  
Just before jumping away, still a little wobbly from my healing legs, I deployed a time-release napom glob, capsule, thingie, onto her leg from my gauntlet. Spinning towards Batman, I caught Red Hood picking up the fight with her just as Bats knocked Baton out with a sucker punch to the face. "Ooo, that's gonna hurt in the morning," I smiled, looking Bats over for injuries: nothing too serious. The Woman cried out as the napom gell exploded burning acid onto her leg, giving Red the window to- well, that's unconventional - to headbut her into unconsciousness.  
Turning slightly back to us, Red heaved, "I must say, I've missed watching you- LOOK OUT!" Startled, I grabbed Bats, yanking him out of the way as Red pushed.  
For a moment everything was black, but I forced my eyes open in time to see Shot on all fours pinning Red down. "Bats, _Bats_!" I gently shook him back from the darkness, wondering what to do. Yes, he was a former comrade to Bats, but in light of recent events...  
Bruce started awake and leaped silently to his feat, pulling out a tazer, "Let go of him and back away. _now_."  
Shot jumped up, backing towards a wall a little before twisting Red into a headlock, "A tazer, really? You shoot me, you electricute him, too."  
"Maybe that's his plan," Red chuckled forcefully. A small device ejected from his right sleeve into his palm, and he slammed it through Shot's mask, causing massive electrical surges around his head.  
"Wait, stop!" stunned, I rushed to the assassin, but his head exploded, smattering blood across the wall and even a bit onto us. I slowly turned around, shocked he would kill so, so readily in front of Batman.  
"Just be happy I only killed one of them. They're all assassins!"  
"And what are you?" Bruce practically whispered, hands starting to clench.  
"I'm cleaning up Gotham! More than you ever did," Red started to walk away, leaving my eyes to dart between them nervously.  
"You're stealing territory from Black Mask and killing anyone who gets in your way. You're becoming a crime lord."  
"Black Mask? He's just part of the plan," Red stopped, putting his hands up in frustration. "And yes! You can't stop crime; that's what you never understood. I'm _controlling _it. You're ruling them with fear, but what do you do with the ones who aren't afraid? I'm doing what you won't. I'm taking them out!"  
Batman paused, eyes narrowing before he took a step forward, arms outstretched, "Tell me what happened to you. Let me help."  
Red jolted, surprised at the offer, but withdrew, shaking his head, "It's too late. You had your chance." Casting a smoke bomb, he slipped into the shadows. Activating our gas masks, Bruce motioned for me to stay, "Don't. come after me. again."  
Stealing a glance at him, I noticed how hard his jaw was set, the glint in his eye, the tension in his shoulders; if I came after him for Jason, there would be consequences. Nodding, I followed him down to street level but decided to switch the batpod into civilian mode for a night on the town. "I need some time to clear my head," I called over the com as he drove off. No response came.  
Settling into a small restaurant bar off of 30th and 9th, I ordered a stiff whiskey with a shot of tequila. Gulping down the near-vikingly potent mixture, I tried to get a warm buzz so I could at least bear the pain better. _Shoot, it's not supposed to hurt this much to heal a couple of bones_, I sighed heavily. After about seven rounds my head was still clear, but I kept going, waiting for the night to end or my head to buzz, whichever came first.  
"I'll have a diet coke with an ounce of rum," I cocked my head, noticing the room was quickly emptying. Turning to look at the new stranger, I realized the liquor perhaps had more of an effect than I thought as my eyes took a moment to focus properly on the red mask. "So, rough night?"  
Blinking slowly, I nodded, rubbing my temples, "Let's just say it did _not_ go well tonight. I see your reputation precedes you?"  
He chuckled and watched the bartender squirm as he tried not to stare, "Well, at least I _have _a reputation here. I'd never even heard of the Phoenix until a couple weeks ago."  
"That's because there was no Phoenix," I sighed. "Now why are you really here? It's obviously not to drink unless you're going to risk taking that mask off."  
"I thought we could talk," he motioned the bartender away, who by now was shaking too much to really do anything.  
"About what?" I looked at my glass, newly refilled.  
"Oh, you know, Bats. How you two met, why he's resisting, how he's doing..."  
"Honestly?" I turned completely on the stool to face him, making my head swim slightly. "He's terrible. Joker... killing you really changed him. He almost broke, but Dick returned to help, and now he's got someone to train again, if only for a little while."  
"What, and then you're going to move?" he sneered.  
I deadpanned, "In a way, I suppose. I don't know when, or how, but I will leave eventually; we all do, don't we? Dick to Bludhaven, Barbara to college, you to..."  
"You still haven't answered my other two questions," Jason set down a knife on the counter between us, making me raise an eyebrow.  
"_You_ threatening me?" I chuckled darkly. "You wouldn't want to see how that played out. And your questions..." the force of the liquor was finally starting to kick in, leaving me a little tipsy. "Perhaps another time." The world seemed to sway - although from my legs or the liquor I didn't know - with each step as I strode into the pre-dawn darkness.


	24. Chapter 23: Last Chance

Sorry for the delay; I've been having serious writer's block and have been kind of avoiding writing this chapter. The dialogue between Bats, Jason, and Joker is taken from the movie (probably part of the reason I didn't want to write this chapter), but it's necessary.

-  
By the time I got back to the cave, Bats was already back out, going who knows where. Well, I'd probably know if I could actually read the monitor, but everything was incredibly fuzzy. Alfred helped me back to my room, and I collapsed in a heap next to the bed.

_Since my first time, dragons and men came to use me brutally week after week, month after month. Days flashed by, mere glimpses of the horrors and pain. Suddenly, the torrent stopped, landing on an off day. A male terrible terror- no, a duone! slunk into the room, changing after he slipped through the bars. I shrunk back, surprised to see my own kind. "Shhh, it's okay. I don't want to hurt you," he gently whispered. Glancing around, he continued, "Just stay quiet; I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm Jamal."  
I studied him warily, wondering what his angle was. "Kylrm. I'm Kylrm."_

I pulled myself upright, groaning as a splitting headache shivered its way down my spine to my toes. "Hehe that doesn't make sense," I giggled. I wasn't nearly as sore as most nights, but then again, this was one of my best memories. "I wonder why whatever God there is sent me this one?" I thought. A sharp rap on my door rang out like a gunshot. "Come in!" I growled, hopping onto my feet with a slight sway. Alfred cautiously entered, narrowly dodging a fiery belch. "Oops! Sorry about that," I covered my mouth sheepishly.  
He just shook his head and set a drink on the bedside table that smelled of rotting fish and infected cankerous root. "Here, this will take care of your hangover," he chuckled as I scrunched my face at him. "Trust me, Master Bruce had many a hangover in his youth, as did I. My mum's own recipe, this is." Shrugging I chugged the glass, nearly spewing it at him as the taste was even worse than the foul concoction smelled. After a few minutes, though, my head and vision cleared.  
"Thanks," I mumbled grudgingly. Alfred smiled and strutted out of the room, ever the posh gentleman. Or not, I suppose, in his youth. I grinned at the vision of a young Alfred getting drunk in a mead hall; ah, how the times - or rather places - had changed. It was still dark, of course, but I seemed to have slept for another twenty minutes. "Better than yesterday, I suppose," I grumbled. And I suppose it was better than having a single, nightmarish day. I was just settling into my comfy - and by that, I mean it had a tiny cushion - chair by the monitor when Alfred conferenced me and Bruce on the screen.  
"Master Bruce, Kylrm! You must turn on the news," their faces tightened with worry. I quickly sat to attention, startled at the scene unfolding on the Washington Parks Bridge.  
"It seems the Joker has escaped once again! He is now holding several people hostage in an armored car," the red-headed reporter shouted over a helicopter's din. The spotlight panned from the truck towards the nearest support tower, light glinting off the red helmet. "And here's the new vigilante in town, known as the 'Red Hood!'"  
Eyes narrowing, Bats hung up. "Don't worry, Alfred," I called out as I transformed into the Phoenix. "We'll bring him home." I barely noticed the screen going back to the default blue home screen as I shot out of the cave on the Batcycle. Normally, Bats would have beaten me to the bridge, but I tapped into my energy, letting it boost the engine's output. I almost flew down the streets, tires barely skating across the pavement, nearly running into pedestrians a few times in my haste. A blockade of police cars parted as they spotted me, but it was too late; I jerked up on the handles, gaining enough lift to catapult over the hoods. Leaping off, I engaged the magnetic grips on my suit to better cling to the bridge's tower. Hearts pounding in my ears, I rapidly scaled Jason's tower, pausing just before the top to collect myself. Pinging Batman's mental signature, I sensed he was only about five minutes away. Pushing myself onto the thin ledge, I sidled up to Jason. "Jason, please," I whispered, using a bit of telepathy to make the sound carry only to him. "Bruce can, _wants _to help you. I know you feel you don't deserve it, but believe me; everything you've done can be forgiven, redeemed. Just come _home_."

Jason froze, barely seeming to breathe. He sighed, eyes closing, "No, I can't. I still have work to do; you'll see."  
"Bu-"  
"We'll _all_ see tonight," Jason stared into the distance, giving me a slight nudge off the platform.  
"Then so be it." Shaking my head, I glided down past the Joker, landing just in front of a large, growing crowd. "I need everyone to move back! He's got unknown explosives, and we will _not_ have further civilian casualties."  
"Why didn't you kill the hood?" "Is the Batman in league with the new vigilante?" "Why didn't you help the hostages?" dozens of questions hit me like a tidal wave, reporters mixed with civilians trying to press me back.  
"ENOUGH!" I roared, silencing the crowd. A fine mist hit me in the back as the Batplane coated the vehicle with fire extinguisher. Smirking, I continued, "All questions will be answered in due course. Fall back so that the professionals can handle this." Everyone reluctantly moved off, grumbling and cursing as they glared daggers back in my direction. I turned around, only to see that Bats and Jason were gone. "Bats, you there?" I clipped over the com.  
"..." after a few minutes of silence, I sighed and double-checked that the Joker and the "hostages" - the Black Mask and his people - were securely in GCPD custody. Well, as secure as the Joker could be, anyways. I roared off on the Batcycle, following Bats' scent through the windy streets and back ways. Most people recognized the bat symbol, so I was able to almost fly across sidewalks and even through a few buildings before I pulled up a block from where they were fighting. For what felt like hours I merely sat on the motorcycle, watching, waiting for them to reach some kind of- there! They landed with a loud _crash!_ in an alley off an old abandoned warehouse. Thunder storms let loose a torrent of rain with a dragonesque roar, distracting my senses for a moment with the abrupt cold, wetness, and scent of an old Viking boot. Eyes narrowing, I caught a glimmer of metal in the clouds, drawing lightning. I swung my leg over the Batcycle to take off, only to drop to the ground as a rapid succession of shurikens sliced through the air where my chest had been.  
"Lovely," I muttered, rising to my feet and side-stepping to avoid further missiles from the fight. Lightly sitting atop Batman's mind, I caught Jason rapidly scaling a fire escape, baiting us forward. I retreated, letting Bats fight his own-  
I sniffed, sharp ears picking up something new, something hidden beneath the rain. I huffed; surely he would notice once he got to the room. Still... I grappled up a building across the street, watching the duo posture through a filthy glass window stained with years of neglect and abuse.  
"...that you let me die?" after a moment of searching, I picked up their conversation. "I don't know what clouds your judgment worse. Your guilt or your antiquated sense of morality. Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me. But why? _why_ on God's earth... is HE still alive?" Jason jerked open what must have been a door, causing a chair with a pale man to fall onto the floor. A pale man with green hair. Static suddenly overwhelmed the signals, blocking me from hearing anything. Wait, not just their signals... a presence lightly pressed against my mind, testing the fortitude and depth of my walls. I quickly brushed it aside, setting up a firm wall broadcasting a simple message: OUT. It backed off, even letting up on the signals, but never truly went away.  
"You know, I thought. I _thought _I would be the last person, you'd ever let him hurt," Jason breathed heavily, somewhere dangerously between crying and laughing from pain, fury, and expectation. "If it had been you that he'd beat to a bloody pulp... if he had taken_ you_ from this world, I would've done nothing..." Jason was almost screaming now, seething in his search for answers, "but search the planet for this pathetic pile of devil-worshiping garbage... and sent him off to hell!"  
"You don't understand," Bats practically whispered. "I don't think you've ever understood."  
"What? What, your moral code just won't _allow _for that?" Jason mocked, sarcasm dripping like blood from his lips. "It's. too. _haaard _to cross that line?"  
"NO! God Almighty. no," Bats spun back to face him, terror and pain spinning off him like waves. "It'd be too damned easy. All I've ever wanted to _do _is kill him. A day doesn't **go ****_by_**I don't think about subjecting him...to every, horrendous, torture, he's dealt out to others. and _then, _end him."  
"Awe, so you _do _think about me," Joker cackled. I growled, envisioning the sadist go through far worse than he could have dealt.  
"But if i do that... if i allow myself to go down into that place... i'll never come back."  
"_Why_? I'm not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I'm talking about him. Just _him_. And doing it because... because he took me away from you.  
"I can't. I'm sorry," Bruce looked away, and I almost wanted him to-  
"Well, you won't have a choice."  
"I won't-"  
"Huhu, _this _is what it's all been about. THIS. You, and me and him. Now is the time you decide. If you won't kill this psychotic piece of filth, _I will_," Jason punctuated those two words with pressing what appeared to be a .45 Glock to Joker's head. Startled, I made to glide into the building, but Bats made a slight stopping motion with his hand. Growling quietly, I settled back into a crouch, ready to step in at a moment's notice. "If you wanna stop me, you're gonna have to kill _me_."  
"You know i won't-"  
"I'm gonna blow his," Jason paused, glancing towards the box. "_deranged _brains out. And if you wanna stop it, you are gonna have to shoot me. Right. in. my. face."  
"Hoo hoo, this is turning out even better than i'd hoped," Joker cackled, not caring even about his own life.  
"It's him or me, you have to decide. Decide now. Do it!" Bats slowly turned, walking away. "Him or me? DECIDE!" Jason suddenly jerked the gun up, pointing it squarely at the back of Bats' head. I froze; if he saw me move, it could set off his finger. Batman glanced over his shoulder and reached into his cape, startling me and Jason with a jump as he whipped a shuriken into Jason's right hand, making him drop the gun. I sighed in relief, gliding towards the warehouse's fire escape on my false wings to help get them out of there before-  
"I can't believe you got him. You expert, rooting-tooting, eagle-eyed, goth-loving marksman. I love it," Joker cackled, eyes rolling in that deathly pale head. "You managed to find a way to win. And everybody still loses."  
Wait...  
"BATS! bomb, bomb, bomb!" I shouted over the com.  
"No, don't spoil it. This is better," Joker screamed, tripping Bats as he ran towards Jason. Confused, I hesitated, wondering who to risk everything on. "I'm the only one who's gonna get what he wants tonight. Yes, bing, bang, _boom_. We all go out together.  
Meeting Bats' eyes, I nodded and swooped towards Joker, grabbing his shoulders and angling out-  
An ear-splitting roar filled all my senses, a sudden blast of air knocking me off balance and tearing apart my right false wing. A large weight suddenly gone from my arms, I banked hard to the right, missing wing sending me into a spin as a slab of concrete smashed into my legs. Swallowing the pain, I quickly unfurled stormcutter wings, banking hard again to avoid a strangely-bent metal tube. Dust and bits of rock and concrete sprayed out from the building, clipping my wings as I frantically tried to avoid the larger debris. A sudden shadow blocked most of the sun, followed almost immediately by a huge weight crashing onto my right wing. Screaming as bone, muscle, and membrane shattered into tiny pieces, I plummeted with the concrete, thrashing helplessly as a thick metal bar impaled my core.


	25. Chapter 24: Shock

Okay, I watched _Unbroken_ a couple days ago, and just wow. That really helped me figure out how to play this chapter (been dying to write my ideas down since). lol I just realized I made a pun :P I actually looked up how your body responds when in shock and thought the confusion would be an interesting addition to the story.

Argh, I didn't get as far as I wanted, but oh well. It felt like it needed to end where it did.  
**WARNING**: this chapter contains graphic content and disturbing imagery

Shaking violently, I tasted the bitterness of copper on my tongue. _Blood_, I thought distantly, blinking dust from my eyes as I regained consciousness. Piercing pain shot through my body as I looked down in shock at a wide, wickedly bent metal bar impaling my abdomen right above my left kidney. Teeth clenching, I gasped as another tsunami of pain crashed through my body, this time from just below my right shoulder blade. Grinding my teeth, I maneuvered my arms beneath me and slowly lifted myself off the concrete, barely keeping my blood from spilling out as the frigid metal slid out with a squelching sound. As it finally came out with a pop, a gush of even colder air tore through the gap, almost making me collapse again. Shaking my head, I pushed off the ground to stand, wobbling as the world spun and dots filled my vision. Still shaking, I braved a teetering step forward, nearly falling as my side and back protested. My balance wavered; something was missing, and not just part of my side. Trying to concentrate, I furrowed my brow, commanding my wings to fold. My left wing did so with ease, but my right did nothing. Confused, I reached behind me, only to find empty air. Hearts racing, I groped around where my wing should be, stopping in horror as I felt a jagged, sickly wet stub of my wing arm with barely a thread of membrane attached.  
_Shock_, I vaguely registered. _I'm going into shock_. Now I could recognize the signs: cold, clammy skin, four hearts racing, dizziness, and bluish fingernails. Breathing out, I tried to take deeper breaths so I could get more oxygen to my cells, but my body rebelled, demanding that I lie down and rest. Tossing my head again, I steeled my nerves and turned my nerve receptors to maximum, the now constant pain stabbing at my mind to keep it awake. Stumbling through the wreckage of the... warehouse? Yes, I think that's it. I sent my mind out in waves, trying to ping someone's location. I wasn't entirely sure who, but I knew I had to find the man. Suddenly, I felt him. _Jason?_ I asked. I felt a small, weak response too soft to hear, but at least I knew where he was. I picked up my pace as much as I could, accidentally scraping my hands and left wing on jagged edges of concrete and metal bars. After a few minutes of searching, I spotted his arm poking out from a hap-hazard pile of debris. Groaning with the effort, I hefted one of the larger blocks off his chest and dropped it next to me.  
His eyes fluttered half-open, and he whispered, "Ph-phoenix?"  
I blinked, wondering what the- oh right, me. "Yes," I whispered back. "Just hold still. He's looking for you; just hold on until he gets here." Wait, who?  
He groaned, coughing up blood as I finally noticed the extent of his injuries. Compound fractures ran the length of his body, and his skull had over a dozen fractures and breaks, causing severe hemorrhaging. "J-just, tell Bruce something. Please?" Jason pleaded, sending him into a coughing/wheezing fit.  
"You can tell him yourself!" I lied, hoping he would at least try to fight. He just glared at me, fear and pain clouding his eyes. I sighed, "but yes, I will tell him."  
"T-tell him," Jason took a shaky breath, blood loudly gurgling in his lungs. "Tell him that I... I..." he tried to suck in more air, but his throat had closed up and there was too much blood in his lungs. _I love him_, Jason pushed the thought to the front of his mind, practically screaming it to me. What little air was left _wooshed _out of his lungs, his spirit leaving as his wounds stopped bleeding. Moments later I heard someone scrambling over the debris, calling out our names.  
"OVER HERE!" I shouted, hoping it was Batman. The noises paused, and I heard him start running towards us. A couple minutes later he was by my side, staring at Jason. Bats frantically pushed aside the debris, shoving me away in his haste. I stumbled back, my over-sensitive stub of a wing felt like it had been hit head-on by another bewilderbeast. Sucking in air through clenched teeth, I watched warily as Bats cradled Jason in his arms, stroking his hair and softly crying. Wincing, I took an excruciating, wobbling step to stand beside Bats and put a hand gently on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," I said quietly. "But there's nothing you could have done."  
Tensing, Bats shuddered, turning slowly to look me in the eye. "Why, _why_ didn't you do anything," he whispered coldly. "You can heal. I've seen it before. WHY didn't you save him!" He jumped up, still holding Jason in his arms.  
"I, he was too fa-"  
"ENOUGH!" Bats shouted. "No more excuses. You didn't save him. You didn't save him! I don't want to see you again." He shoved me with his shoulder, causing me to almost fall again, arms flailing and wing flaring to regain my balance. My feet slipped on the blood-slick rubble; I grabbed the slab behind me, elbows buckling as I tried to stay upright. Without my right wing, it was almost impossible to be fully balanced. Glancing back, I realized that moving was aggravating it too much to heal. Still, Bruce was too unstable to stay here. Or was he too unstable for me to leave?  
_Dick, Dick? are you there?_ I connected directly to his mind.  
_Are you all right? What's going on?_ he responded.  
_Not really, but I need a ride_, I winced as the pain in my side and back multiplied. _Now.  
All right, I'm on my way_, Dick withdrew from my touch slightly. Taking a deep breath, I stumbled forward, leaning to my right to offset the lost weight. I reached the street a few agonizing minutes later, closing my eyes to the sudden wash of red and blue light. Cracking them open, I quickly threw a few illusions around myself before ducking behind rubble. I tried to extend my mind to the police officers, but it stubbornly remained rooted. Thaaat was never a good sign. Sighing, I instead tapped into the police radio frequency.  
_Detective Gordon_?  
"Yessss, who is this?" static followed.  
_This is the Phoenix, Batman's new apprentice. He's still going through the rubble, but I need to get off the scene... discretely.  
"_All right, what do you need?"  
_A black Ford Expedition will be coming to pick me up, and I need your men to spread out so they don't see me or the driver. Oh, and the Joker's still alive but severely injured; I would suggest doing something about that_. A few minutes later, I heard the police dispersing just as Dick pulled up. Glancing to double-check our security, I only sensed Gordon and Dick close enough to see me. A few stumbling steps later, Dick leaped out of the car to help me in. I carefully slid into the passenger side, lowering the back of the seat so my wing and side could breathe.  
Jolting forward, Dick floored the SUV, making me grip the door pocket to stay upright. This was going to be one long night.


	26. Chapter 25: Waking Nightmare

A clank of keys jolted me back to reality, blinking in confusion as I realized I was in the doorway of an apartment. A man looked over his shoulder worriedly, gently tugging my hand. I jerked away, growling as pain stabbed from my left side and right wing. Wait, not wing. Wing... stub? Memories flooded back, and I hurriedly returned feeling to my nerve endings around the wounds, jolting me out of shock. "Kylrm, are you okay? Kylrm!" I vaguely heard Dick through a high-pitched ringing in my ears. Nodding, I hesitantly took a step, pain shooting like lightning up my side. Gritting my teeth, I carefully sat on a soft, slightly rough fabric covering some tree flooring. Blinking hard once, I refocused, concentrating on directing my healing cells towards my side. If I could just... a steaming mug was pressed into my hand. Startled, I tried to stand up, only to hiss as a sharp blast of pain coursed through my side. "Shhh, easy," Dick said, putting a hand on my shoulder to gently push me back down. "You're safe here. Just rest, and I'll take care of everything."  
A few hours and mugs of hot cocoa with whiskey later, my side finally healed. Taking a deep breath for the first time since the fight, I nodded to Dick, who had taken a seat on his couch a while ago. Legs protesting in sleep, I slowly stood up, leaning on the couch arm for support. "Okay, what do you want to know?" I sighed, wincing as cells leaped to reconstruct my wing.  
Dick hesitated, and taking a deep breath said quietly, "He just left you there. You were _wounded_, and he just _left_ you."  
Somewhat relieved, I offered a small smile, "Bruce didn't know I was hurt. He was worried about Jason; I couldn't take that away from him."  
He propelled off the couch, pain and concern seething in his deep blue eyes, "If he had just looked he would have seen." Chest heaving, he softened his gaze slightly, seeing something in my eyes. I gently put a hand on his shoulder. "It's just not like him. And Alfred should have called by now."  
"It's all right," I said quietly, stiffening as another wave of needles stabbed from my wing. Suddenly, a very different scene flashed across my vision, making me stumble back. Bumping into a side table, I shook my head, startled as the well-lit cave cleared from my vision.  
Dick frowned, "What happened?" I just shrugged, wondering that myself. Blinking away stubborn dots, I realized the cave was vaguely familiar...  
"Oh no," I managed to squeak as another tsunami of pain crashed from my missing wing through my entire body. Stumbling forward, I hissed as cold, almost frozen rock met my bare feet. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled somewhere high above us. _US_, I froze. _I'm not alone. _Eyes darting, I cautiously stepped forward, a booming yet soft voice cascading through the cavernous space.  
_You've been hiding from this for too long, _duone, Hashim said. I flinched back, a sharp pain splicing from my shredded right wing. Looking down, I was hit by a wave of confusion. Why was I in bewilderbeast form? Wasn't I...  
"Kylrm, KYLRM!" a familiar voice violently yanked me from the memory. Hands were on my skin, shaking my form! Growling, I shoved the still materializing figure away, jumping backwards into a defensive stance. Well, more or less. My right wing now missing, I teetered, arms thrust to the side to regain my balance and finding purchase on some strangely-shaped wooden... oh. Now I could fully see the apartment, taking in the over-turned couches and small, almost useless tables. A figure was slumped against a tile fireplace on the far wall. He groaned, "What the heck was that about?!"  
Chest heaving, I watched him slowly get up, a small trickle of blood running down his temple. Brow knitting, the man repeated the same sounds, but what did they mean? Words were coming back to me, but in bits and pieces. _Who are you!_ I shouted at his mind, wincing back as I felt his slight resistance give way to mounting confusion. The man's expression softened, and he let loose another string of words, "... help... safe now." Still hesitant, I relaxed slightly, letting him lead me to a more open space where I couldn't knock anything over. His forehead was a swarm of wrinkles, eyes squinting tight to look deep into mine. Squirming slightly under his stare, I felt his grip soften even more and release, letting me shift slightly away. The young man - perhaps twenty-four or five winters - was definitely familiar, but I couldn't quite place why. And that memory...  
The man pulled a metal disk-like object out of his clothing, making me shy away. He put out his hand, and I quickly recognized it as a communications device. Nodding, I heard him quickly say a few phrases before picking up a faint, much older voice on the other end. Dick. That was his name. Everything came into focus, "...Alfred, I don't_care_ what state he's in! Bruce needs to get over here right now... [but Master Gr-] enough! He should have been with her after the explosion, but at least he can be here, now... looks like she's back." Dick hung up, searching my face again for the recognition I knew was there now.  
"It's okay," I offered weakly. "It was just... well, probably just a ha-"  
"No," he said passionately. "Don't you dare lie to me."  
Squinting at his expression, I sighed, "Fine. It was a memory. I've never had them while awake, but I think _this,_ this is pulling me back."  
Dick nodded, not even questioning what the memory was. "What can I do to help?"  
I briefly closed my eyes, focusing on pressing back against the fragile wall holding the memory at bay. After a moment, I re-opened them, dropping all illusions. "Just, just_be _here." With a gut-wrenching jerk, I was back in the cave, washed in the fear and pain as Hashim approached.  
He flashed a menacing grin with dozens of missing teeth, _You know there's no escape now. Everyone you cared about is dead or incapacitated. No one can save you. No one even cares anymore. No one knows you exist_.  
Rapidly shaking my massive head, I backed against a sharp-edged rocky wall. _No, it can't be! YOU'RE LYING!_ I sensed a good-familiar presence nearby and tried to grab on, but it slipped from my grasp. Chest heaving, I swung my tusks in an arc, trying to ward off the much larger dragon.  
He chuckled, a harsh, grating noise, _Ah, but it's true. _Hashim sighed, _I was rather hoping we would find another female, but you seem to be the last one_. Eyes growing wide, I felt my heart skip a beat. _Oh yesss, He didn't tell you when He brought you here, did He?  
_Trembling, I tried to shift sideways, awkwardly tripping over my still over-sized, soot-covered paws. _P-please, don't do this!_ Hashim just smirked, cackling again as he slowly approached. Suddenly, I felt the familiar presence again. The cave faltered, two realities faded against each other, the memory still strong, but it _was _a memory! I finally latched onto the mind, pulling myself out of the memory. _I can't let him see this_, I thought sadly. I may be ready to share what happened, but I couldn't let him see what I did next. That would be too-  
"Kylrm, are you there?" a soft voice emerged from the in-between darkness as the apartment came back into the focus. Taking a deep, shaky breath, I petted the soft carpet with a smooth hand, smiling slightly at the welcome change from the roughness of the cave. "Uh... Kylrm?"  
I snapped out of the haze, gazing up into the face of... Dick, that was his name. I blushed, "Sorry, I... it's a hard memory."  
He frowned, brow knitting as he looked over my appearance. Startled, I remembered I had dropped all the illusions. Looking away, I blushed furiously and started to cast a few basic ones that would at least hide the worst of the scars. Dick gently held my chin, bringing my eyes back to meet his. "Hey," he whispered. "I don't care what you look like; I care about the _real _you. No matter what." I managed a small smile, his deep blue eyes putting me more at ease. Dick sat beside me, holding my hand gently, "So, why do you think the injury's triggering this?"  
I shuddered, flinching. "I-it's the same thing that happened... then. I, _he_..." I took a deep, shuddering breath, biting my bottom lip a little. "In the hours before He - that is, Drago - took me to Hashim's cave, they threw everything they had at me. It was the one day they didn't, um..."  
After a moment, Dick said, "It's okay; you don't have to tell me."  
I smiled slightly but gratefully, my words coming in a blur now as phantom-rippings shot up and down where my right wing _should _be. "Well, they finally managed to completely separate my right wing's membrane from the arm, and even parts of that came off in the process. Dazed and trying to put myself back together, I was led to the cave where a nadder incinerated the bloody, separated pieces of my wing, which makes it almost impossible to grow back."  
"And that's what triggered the me-"  
I shook my head, making him shoot me a befuddled look. "It's, well... it's more than that." Dick nodded, concerned eyes urging me on. "They found another bewilderbeast's wing... well, killed him. I... my body needed something to start the healing process, and it started trying to take cells from that. That's what they wanted." Eyes shooting wide open, I felt the pull of a black scale to my wing. Back in the cave, I snorted, frantically looking for the body. If I could just turn- no! I jerked right so my wing stub was pushed against the wall. Screaming in excruciating pain, I felt every raw, exposed fiber scraping and dying against the rocks.  
_Ah, I see the old prune is finally serving us well_. I barely registered Hashim chortling cruelly through the pain, but his mind words were clear as, as... _Nraaaa!_ I slammed a tusk through the foreign cell, lucky enough to tear it apart before it could reach my wing, but the movement tearing more of my wing arm. _She didn't survive her _first _week. _I shuddered, wincing at another layer of pain.  
_She was lucky_, I shot back weakly. Hashim stabbed at my mind, nearly getting through my inner wall. I weakly pushed back, straining to keep fighting, keep being me. All at once, a massive tidal wave of pressure, anger, and fear flooded my mind. _No, NOOO!_ I screamed, frantically trying to push him back. I felt the distinct tug of another foreign cell and deviated for a moment to attack it, Hashim immediately surging forward to take control of more systems. My tail dropped, completely numb. My left wing quickly followed, spurring me to drop the attack and return to pushing against Hashim. Hearts beating frantically, I felt them grow in size until another grew to deliver more power. Panicking, I finally accepted what I had to do, the world seeming to stand still. Somewhere in the back of my mind, two voices screamed not to do it, but... I couldn't risk myself falling into their hands. By the time Hashim realized what I was doing, it was too late. I swiftly swung my forepaws to my throat, feeling the steely-cold claws slicing through my thin voice box, moist artery, and... and... I weakly spread my claws to just inside the scales, preventing the tissues from, healing...  
After some time, I opened my eyes slowly to a nearly blinding light surrounding me. There was no cold or scent, just... perfect warmth. A shimmering figure obscured by the light began to emerge. I warily started to stand, jumping as I saw my blacker-than-night form with starlight winking in and out in stark contrast to the beautiful light. Peace emanated from the slowly approaching figure, although I didn't quite understand why.  
"Peace, little one," the softest, gentlest voice I ever heard caressed my mind with an embrace so light I almost missed it. I hummed, relaxing as he became clearer. The man was clothed as my human form usually was, his pale robe an extension of his fluid, yet silently strong, body. He had no fear; most simply tried not to show fear when approaching a dragon, but he truly was not afraid. A sense of familiarity washed over me, but I would remember a man such as this. "You're safe now, and there is nothing to fear." Something just felt... right. I relaxed into his hand, brushing my head against his shoulder as I felt an overwhelming peace wash away what little remained of my pain and fear. The man smiled down at me, gently caressing my soft head. "I'm afraid you can't stay here, Kylrm." I winced, pushing a little farther into him. "I know, but my Father has plans for you. We give you the strength to carry on."  
Pulling back, I look into his eyes for the first time, noticing a strange depth, knowledge, wisdom even. "Who are you?" I whisper, taking in his unique scent of citrus, space dust, and... something entirely new.  
"I am the Son, a part of what your people call the Creator." Eyes widening, I stumbled back, bowing clumsily as I tried to process his words. _The Creator? How could... Did _anyone_know he was, uh..._ "A Trinity? some do, yes. In this and several other worlds, they are known as Christians." I started, stories from my hatchling-hood reminding me the Creator was the ultimate alpha, reading all minds simultaneously without being overwhelmed.  
"Wh-why not just let me die? If you're so merciful, why not answer my prayers!" tears coursed down my smooth scales.  
"You have an important purpose, one not easily fulfilled," he sadly replied, gently wiping a tear away. "This prepares, steels you for what is to come."  
Suddenly, something shifted almost imperceptibly, and the memories of the following seventeen years flooded back to me. Strangely, I was still in the light, but while there was no visible change in time, something _felt_ different. The Son emerged again, this time appearing more worn. And were those blood stains?  
"You are in a different place and time, so you see me as someone from this world would see me," the Son smiled warmly. "We have little time, so I must be brief. There_are_ other dragons in the world, and you must find them soon. There is an old enemy approaching, and you will need everyone to defeat him."

-  
Argh, I've spent almost a month on this (literally)! this has probably been the hardest emotion-wise for me to write. I got through it, though hope it was worth it!


	27. Q&A

Hi y'all

I'm trying to get into comics but have no idea how to really start. So, after reading more than a few Tapastic Q&amp;A comics, I thought why not start with that

The story itself isn't a comic, but it might be fun for people to see what the characters (kinda) look like. Here are the main characters in order of importance (you can also ask minor characters):

Kylrm

Richard Greyson (aka Nightwing)

Batman

Toothless


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